An advertisement in the Washington newspaper Roll Call is attacking credit unions in a manner reminiscent of an ad run years ago by banks — but this time the bankers are on the same side.
In fact, the ad attacks credit unions because they have sided with banks to oppose the interchange regulation amendment in the regulatory reform bill.
The ad shows a duck smoking a cigar, and reads: "If it walks like a bank … talks like a bank … quacks like a bank … it should be taxed like a bank."
The ad is sponsored by a Washington lobby group called American Family Voices and was financed by a lobbyists that are backing the interchange amendment, including Merchants Payments Coalition, and Americans for Financial Reform, according to Michael Lux, the head of American Family Voices.
Lux said he had no idea the "quacks like a duck" tax attack was first launched by the American Bankers Association five years ago.
"The credit unions are carrying water for the banks on the swipe fee issue, so if they're going to carry water for the banks, maybe they ought to be taxed like banks," he said in an interview Thursday.
The National Association of Federal Credit Unions discounted the campaign. "In Washington, you know you're making progress on an issue when groups like this come out of the woodwork to attack you," said Jay Morris, the trade group's senior vice president for marketing and communications. "The ad is actually a rip-off of a bankers' ad that ran a few years ago… That campaign failed, and I don't expect this one to fare much better."
