Newsroom

May 18, 2016

Berger once again hits bankers back

NAFCU President and CEO Dan Berger slammed a recent study commissioned by the Massachusetts Bankers Association attacking credit unions' growth in the commonwealth, saying the study doesn't even merit "serious consideration" since it was bought and paid for by the bankers.

"It is a brazenly biased attempt on the part of the bankers to sully credit unions' reputation with contrived findings," Berger said.

"If bankers expended as much energy and effort addressing their questionable practices as they do attacking credit unions, perhaps they would not have racked up more than $136 billion in fines, settlements, mortgage buybacks and relief to borrowers in the years following the financial crisis," he added.

Berger pointed to the large fines and settlements big banks have paid as a result of the financial crisis, which can often be written off as tax deductions.

In a separate response debunking erroneous assertions made by the American Bankers Association last month, Berger said the banks have received tax breaks in the amount of nearly $17 billion a year over the last few years due to these settlements and fines – more than 10 times the 2015 tax expenditure estimate for credit unions ($1.69 billion).

Berger added that bankers' time would be better spent working with credit unions on the issues of much-needed national data security standards for retailers and regulatory relief for financial institutions. "These two issues are taking an extremely heavy toll on the financial services industry," he said.