Apparently, Alaska USA picked up Washington state as part of its field of membership when it took over a financially troubled Washington chartered credit union in 2010.
Under NCUA's emergency merger powers, the field of membership of the merging credit union may be transferred intact to the continuing federal credit union without regard to any field of membership restrictions.
What is troubling is that the community charter comprises a whole state. NCUA field of membership regulations currently prohibit a federal credit union from having a community charter that encompasses a whole state.
I would feel better if NCUA had found a Washington state credit union that already served all of Washington state as a merger partner than merge the troubled credit union with a federal credit union.
And I would rather have a system where B of A, Wells Fargo, Chase, Citi, and all the rest of the the 'to big to fail' institutions didn't have national cross-borders authority too. So, while you are about limiting credit union charters, please put that into the mix.
ReplyDeleteYes TBTF is still a problem - but they aren't tax exempt, CRA exempt and don't have a regulator that thinks their mission is to promote credit unions.
DeleteNo. Just the Federal Reserve who thinks it is their duty to bail out the biggest banks. And not punish the TBIF banks when they screw up the American economy.
Deletejust love the credit union defenders.
Deletejpm, wells, b of a acquire wachovia, countrywide, wamu,bear stearns, merril lynch and save the taxpayer from those burdens at (now) enormous cost to them and NOT the taxpayer. yes, big banks were awful. but - what- wescorp, us central, telesis, texans werent?
WAKE UP.
bad lending was universal and as a percentage of industry assets worse (and still worse) in credit unions.
bet you think the assessment repreive is permanent too.
tell you what, i got a church loan participation i want you to buy...or a telesis biz loan.
"Too big to fail" is going to destroy this country. I look forward to Keith's next article on why interstate banking limitations should apply to banks as well as credit unions.
DeleteI'd gladly swap the tax exemption for a return to interstate banking prohibitions.
As a CEO in Washington State, "Amen". While we pay state taxes (state sales tax at about 10%), Alaska pays zilch. Nada.
ReplyDeletePerhaps NCUA being both a chartering authority and a deposit insurer creates an inherent conflict of interest?
ReplyDelete