Texas CU League To Fight CUConversions

FARMERS BRANCH, Texas. - (03/15/05) -- The Texas CU League, faced with theproposed conversion to bank of two of its largest member creditunions, said it plans to seek legislative changes to make suchcharter switches more difficult. Among the possibilities arechanges to the state law that would require a two-thirds vote toconvert, rather than the current simple majority. But the leaguehas not yet decided how it will go about informing members of thetwo credit unions-Community CU and OmniAmerican CU-that theconversions are "not in their best interests." "We just got thepolicy adopted Friday and we are now strategizing how to implementit," Dick Ensweiler, president of the league, told The Credit UnionJournal Monday, A massive advertising campaign in the case ofCommunity CU would be unlikely, he said, as the NCUA already hasdisclosure requirements in place for that conversion. Plano-basedCommunity CU, with $1.7 billion in assets, would be the largestcredit union defection ever, followed closely by $1.5 billionOmniAmerican CU, in Forth Worth.