CEO DATELINE Banking, credit union associations clash in digital campaigns
CEO DATELINE Banking, credit union associations clash in digital campaigns
- November 29, 2021 |
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Walt Williams
Nov. 29, 2021
The National Association of Federally-insured Credit Unions announced a new digital campaign Monday criticizing bank "bullies." This latest salvo in the ongoing advocacy battle with banks comes two months after the American Bankers Association launched a website calling on lawmakers to "reform credit unions."
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The "Stop Big Bank Bullies" campaign will highlight the "$243 billion in fines paid by Big Wall Street banks for the harm they've inflicted on consumers after violating numerous consumer laws," NAFCU said in a statement. It will also focus on how banks "spend hundreds of billions in buying back shares of their own stock in order to line their own pockets."
ABA launched the "Reform Credit Unions" website in September to accuse credit unions of using their tax-exempt status to buy "tax-paying banks and expand their market share beyond what's fair." Credit unions do not pay federal income taxes.
NAFCU said its campaign was launched in response to "wrongful attacks" by banks and their trade associations on its industry. The group said that under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed during the Trump administration, banks received $95 billion in tax breaks—an amount that exceeds the credit union tax exemption.
"It's time for banks to be held accountable; their bad behavior has been overlooked for far too long," NAFCU CEO Dan Berger said. "Consumers have the power to stop these bullies by leaving their bank and joining a credit union."
For its part, ABA alleges that credit unions are shielded from scrutiny about their effects on consumers because they are less regulated than banks.
"It made sense in the 1930s for the government to subsidize credit unions by letting them off the hook from paying federal income taxes. Back then, they helped at-risk communities survive hard times by expanding access to credit to those who needed it most," ABA says on the Reform Credit Unions website. "Large credit unions have long abandoned that mission, and today are seeking membership growth—by targeting rich people."
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