Credit Union National Association
The Cwand are member-owned and democratically operated. They are governed by board of directors from various credit
unions across the nation are currently a $874 billion industry across North America (Canada too!)
The CUNA is currently chaired by Kris Mecham with Daniel Mica serving as the president. Currently the CUNA's
biggest legislative initiative is to their opposition to giving more than $30 billion to
community banks in an effort to increase small business lending. The CUNA proposes that instead of giving more tax payers money away,
they would rather see the statuary cap on credit union business lending raised from 12.25% of total assets to 25%,
giving the credit unions up to $10 billion in additional funding in new loans to small businesses, creating as many
as 108,000 jobs without using any tax payer dollars or increasing the government size.
Community banks obviously oppose this initiative on the claim that it is adopting higher risk lending options in
a fragile economy. Community banks also support legislation to congress to start taxing credit unions that are
lending money like traditional banks and using the credit union exempt as a tax shelter to conduct business. Credit
Unions also currently benefit from a different tax structure, based on their not-for-profit status, as compared to
traditional bank, and are NOT required to meet the community reinvestment obligations.
However, CUNA and traditional banks are fighting in the same corner when it comes to their common opposition
against the formation of the
Consumer Financial Protection Agency CFPA. CUNA's defense is similar to the payday lender's stance. They
were not the cause of the banking crisis, nor did they receive taxpayer's bailout funds in 2008, therefore
believe they shouldn't be punished for something their "brother" industry created.
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