PenFed's CEO Admits Anyone Can Join

In a January 25, 2019 opinion piece in Credit Union Times, James Schenck, President and CEO of Pentagon Federal Credit Union (McLean, VA), acknowledged that the credit union already had nationwide membership eligibility prior to its emergency merger with Progressive Credit Union (New York, NY).

The opinion piece was in response to banking trade associations criticisms of the acquisition of Progressive CU, which had an open charter, by Pentagon FCU (PenFed).

Schenck wrote:

Despite the criticism from bankers, PenFed already had nationwide membership eligibility through our existing field of membership, as well as a presence in all 50 states as a multiple-common-bond credit union.

In other words, PenFed's CEO is admitting that anyone can join.

This admission that anyone throughout the United States can join shows that the concept of common bond has become a joke.

This is just another example as to why policymakers should end the preferential tax treatment of large credit unions like PenFed.

Read the opinion piece.