There's no time to waste. America's credit unions need to move and move quickly in response to this latest assault from the banking industry in which a $1,000 "bounty" is being offered for actual photographs of a credit union overstepping its fields of membership. The credit union trade groups need to set up a remote response unit dedicated to this threat. Not in Washington. Not even in Madison, Wis. No, I have just the place in mind: Roswell, N.M.
Roswell, N.M. is the perfect location. First, if space aliens really did crash in Roswell certainly one of the five credit unions in town has added them (and their home planet) to their FOM. What better illustration would there be for Congress of how credit unions have had to evolve from People Helping People to People Helping Humanoids With Strange Predilections For Body Probes. This New Mexico city is also ideal because who knows more about actual photos of "sightings" than the folks in Roswell?
The banker's have formed the Inter-Trade Credit Union Coordinating Council, or ITCUC. Credit unions have little choice but to call their new Roswell-based operation ITSUK.
So the bankers want to see photos of credit unions serving consumers? Give them what they want, I say! Every week this newspaper receives dozens of photos of credit unions at work in their communities. Make a copy and send it along to the ABA. And then send another. And another. You can find the addresses for the American Bankers Association, the Independent Community Bankers of America and America's Community Bankers all available online. (With all this attention to credit unions, perhaps their members will be too busy to notice it appears there are a tad too many bank trade groups.)
Finally, is it any surprise the bankers are paying a "bounty?" When has any banker done anything without charging?
Frank J. Diekmann is editor of The Credit Union Journal.
