Oct. 23, 2012 – NAFCU President and CEO Fred Becker had praise for a New York Times Economix blog contribution Monday that holds credit unions up as a better deal than banks for lower-cost, higher-earning services and products.
Nancy Folbre, an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts, was writing about the importance of overdraft and swipe fees to banks’ profits. She noted the growth of fees, reminds of the consumer backlash that materialized with last year’s Bank Transfer Day and extols the virtues of credit unions as being member-driven, not driven by profits.
“The new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau may develop strategies in this game of whack-a-mole,” wrote Folbre. “But why bank with moles in the first place? Credit unions charge fees, too, but they don’t design them to maximize revenue . . .”
“Bravo! We could not have said it any better,” Becker said in a posted comment. “Your sentiments echo the findings of the latest Bankrate survey, which reports that the average monthly fee on noninterest checking accounts offered by a bank rose a record 25 percent. By contrast, credit unions continue to hold the line on checking account fees.”