Newsroom

January 31, 2013

Becker debunks ABA on MBL, tax

NAFCU President and CEO Fred Becker suggested to House and Senate leaders Thursday that the banking industry might have helped limit the financial crisis if it had paid more attention to its own troubles and focused less on credit union member business lending.

"NAFCU would like to set the facts straight and encourage you to support the bipartisan effort to raise the arbitrary and outdated credit union member business lending cap and to help small businesses access the credit they need to create jobs," Becker said in a letter to House and Senate leaders. "As you examine this issue, who will you stand with? Big banks, the ABA and Wall Street or credit unions, small businesses and Main Street?"

Becker wrote to debunk the misinformation deliveredby the American Bankers Association in a letter to the Hill Thursday. In his response, Becker pointed out that:

  • Unlike the bailouts for the banking industry, an MBL cap increase for credit unions "wouldn't cost taxpayers a single dime."
  • "What the banks won't tell you is that nearly one-third of banks are Subchapter S corporations and pay no corporate income tax."
  • Banks pay other taxes and so do credit unions, and credit union members pay tax on dividends from their credit unions.

"Unfortunately, our nation's bankers, many of the same ones that made the subprime loans that got our nation into this crisis and then got a taxpayer bailout, have launched an all-out assault on this effort to help our nation recover," Becker wrote. "Don't be fooled by their spin."