Credit Union/Bank Tussle Resumes

It?s a feud as old as the hills themselves; since the dawn of time ? or, at least, the dawn of credit ? banks and credit unions have squabbled. According to a story in today?s St. Paul Pioneer Press, this iteration of the bitter enmity is being led by the Minnesota Banker?s Association against the Minnesota Credit Union Network. And though this particular skirmish is local, it represents the growing enmity between the two cash giants.

MBA president Joseph Witt has called on Congress to curb credit unions? tax exemption. As Witt argues it, four of the state’s largest credit unions have “morphed” into communitywide entities that “can best be described as tax-exempt banks.” Which is what the banks have always wanted to be themselves; hence the bitterness.

According to Patrick Pierce, president of the City & County Credit Union in St. Paul, he and his peers are prepared to “go to the well” to prevent the banks from curbing their powers.

Usually credit unions win in these kinds of battles. However, a strong new anti-credit union foe has taken the arena: Utah banker Harris Simmons, who has ascended to the chair of the bankers’ principal trade group, the American Bankers Association. Simmons has pushed the association to challenge credit unions more aggressively.

You can read more about this story ? including potential winners and losers in this latest upheaval ? at Credit Union/Bank Tussle Resumes.