WASHINGTON - NAFCU last week rebuffed any talk of plans to merge with CUNA and form one national credit union trade association.
While CUNA has long favored such a merger, the recent discussion of such a combination was not initiated by CUNA, but by a group of six credit union CEOs who published a white paper titled, "A Stronger and More Effective Single Trade Association for Credit Unions. The Time is NOW." The impetus for such a merger, according to the paper, is the need to speak with one voice when lobbying in Washington and the cost of dues to support two separate groups.
The six CEOs who signed the paper are: Mary Cunningham of USA FCU; John Bommarito of Western FCU; Teresa Freeborn of Xceed FCU; Kirk Kordeleski of Bethpage FCU; Nader Moghaddam of Financial Partners CU and Gordon Dames, of Mountain America FCU.
In response, NAFCU reiterated it has no interest in pursuing a merger with CUNA. NAFCU Chair Brad Beal said the board has unanimously agreed to maintain NAFCU's independence as a trade association. The NAFCU Board voted unanimously against discussing a merger in June.
CUNA also stressed it has not approached NAFCU about such a merger. "We have made no offer to NAFCU in any way, shape or form," said Tom Dorety, chairman of the CUNA Board. "We are willing to sit down and discuss the possibility of creating a new national trade association for credit unions, "Once we sit down and discuss it we may acknowledge that there's no way we can do it."
Dorety, president of Suncoast Schools FCU in Tampa, said the paper "was written by these folks who requested both trade associations sit down and discuss the creation of a new entity."(c) 2008 The Credit Union Journal and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved.http://www.cujournal.com/ http://www.sourcemedia.com/
