Celebrating 75 years of International Credit Union Day

The credit union mantra of “people helping people” is needed more than ever in our world today. Whether it’s recovering from war, rebuilding after natural disasters, or simply helping communities get financially healthy, not-for-profit financial cooperatives have a valuable role to play in the lives of so many.

Thursday marked the 75th International Credit Union Day, a chance to highlight and reflect on the tremendous power of the more than 87,000 credit unions that collectively serve around 394 million members across 118 countries.

We wrote to Congress highlighting the nearly $20.4 billion in member benefits (and $7.9 billion in benefits for non-members) realized from June 2022 to June 2023, and asked elected officials to support our mission and advance our priorities.

Leagues, credit unions, and members around the world shared the credit union difference across social media. I’m proud to work every day in support of a movement that makes such positive, life-changing differences in so many lives. And I’m grateful to be surrounded by leaders and a movement that isn’t satisfied with the status quo and always strives for more.

Thank you to all who make credit unions a powerful force for good and work alongside us to build an even better movement for the future.

READ ABOUT INTERNATIONAL CREDIT UNION DAY

Banks continue to misrepresent credit unions

NAFCU President/CEO Dan Berger and I continued to push back against banks’ fundamental misunderstanding of the credit union difference in a LinkedIn post. Dan and I responded to a bank social media post questioning our tax status with the truth: the credit union tax status is one of the best public policy investments we make. Credit union members and non-members realize benefits worth many times the “cost” of the tax status, and credit unions continue to focus on communities that banks are leaving behind.

Read the response here

Economic Update covers student loan effects

CUNA Senior Economist Ligia Vado delves into the potential effect the lift of student loan forbearance can have on credit union asset quality performance in this month’s Economic Update. She also examines initiatives that help credit unions to strategically market and service the Hispanic and Latino market in the U.S.

Watch the video here

CUNA named top trade association for member representation, bipartisanship

CUNA was recognized this week by APCO Worldwide as the top-rated association in Washington, D.C., for member representation and bipartisanship. APCO studies 15 elements of association effectiveness in achieving advocacy goals. It’s an honor to receive this recognition because we work every day to make sure our members have a strong voice. We couldn’t do it without working across the aisle with our credit union champions. Thank you to all who helped make this recognition possible through your advocacy and hard work.

Read more here

Senate passes resolution against section 1071 rule

The Senate voted 53-44 Wednesday to pass a resolution of disapproval for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s section 1071 final rule. We believe this rule will result in substantial increases in the cost of small business borrowing, something community credit unions and small businesses can’t afford. Support for this resolution—and its House companion—are part of our 360-degree advocacy efforts to void this final rule, and we’ll keep working to move this resolution forward.

Read more here

More from 360-degree advocacy

• We expressed concerns with the CFPB's section 1033 proposed rule, which would require credit unions to create, maintain, and service interfaces for third parties to access member data, but prohibit charging a fee for those services.?
• We submitted joint comments with NAFCU to the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee as it heard testimony from NCUA board nominee Tanya Otsuka.
• We joined NAFCU and the Virginia Credit Union League in filing a joint amicus brief in support of 1st Advantage Credit Union, Newport News, Va., in a case involving ACH payments systems.
• We were proud to send letters of support for Inclusiv and Ecority’s applications for Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund grants. ?
• Along with the World Council of Credit Unions, we called for international credit union programs to be part of any supplemental funding legislation being prepared to aid Ukraine and Israel.