NAFCU praised House Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit Subcommittee Ranking Member Bernie Sanders (I-VT) for requesting a Government Accountability Office study on banks and thrifts.
"We appreciate that Representative Sanders recognizes and supported NAFCU's request for closer scrutiny of the benefits banks and thrifts receive. Credit unions continue to have the same percentage of domestic financial assets today as they did in 1980, which is 1.4 percent, and are not the competitive threat to banks and thrifts that banks would have you believe," said NAFCU CEO Fred Becker. "I suspect that the study will show the banking and thrift industries are doing quite well, earning tidy sums for their executives and directors, while enjoying government aid and tax breaks that dwarf the benefits credit unions receive."
Among the issues that Sanders asked GAO to address: the financial benefits the banking and thrift industries received from taxpayers in the thrift bailout in the 1980s and banks' tax benefits today from Subchapter S status. He also asked GAO to examine how bank and thrift profits and executive pay have fared during these periods.
