WASHINGTON—The point/counterpoint between banks and credit union trade groups in the press continues here.
Following a letter-to-the-editor in The Hill from Frank Keating, president of the American Bankers Association, that was critical of NCUA as a “runaway regulator,” CUNA’s CEO, Jim Nussle, responded with a letter of his own saying “it’s hard not to chuckle after reading Frank Keating’s latest rant…Any time you see the bankers complaining about credit unions, know that life must be pretty good for the banking industry.”
In his response Nussle called Keating’s claim that NCUA is a “cheerleader” a “pretty disingenuous criticism coming from an industry that has a seat set aside for a banker on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. The truth of the matter for credit unions is that the agency has been on a binge of regulation over the past several years, culminating in a new risk-based capital regime that is a solution in search of a problem. And credit unions continue to fault the agency on inconsistent examinations and questionable examiner practices.”
Nussle went on to address the differences between banks and credit unions, why field-of-membership regulations have had to evolve, and points out that in fiscal 2014 banks paid $24.7 billion in financial fraud fines.
Like a similar letter that appeared in The Hill just days earlier from NAFCU CEO Dan Berger, Nussle concluded that “If the American Bankers Association thinks credit unions have it so good, we’re happy to work with them to convert their banks to credit unions.”