CUNA, NAFCU Do Look For Common Ground

In your Feb. 11 issue, you ran a story on recent comment letters submitted by NAFCU and CUNA with the headline, “Major CU Trades Take Different Stands on Fed’s `Clear and Conspicuous’ Proposal.” At times we will disagree with CUNA on issues or, said another way, CUNA will disagree with NAFCU – and that is a good reason, as reporter Sarah Cooke observes, to have two well-respected and highly effective trade associations. The headline in this case may, however, have left the impression that NAFCU and CUNA are at stark odds with each other over the Fed’s proposal. While not speaking for CUNA, I believe we both expressed serious concerns about the impact that compliance with the Fed’s proposal would have on credit unions and differed purely in the timing of the proposal. In this respect, I believe that both NAFCU and CUNA merely approached the Fed’s proposal from their own perspectives, as will always be the case, as the two strive to serve as effective representatives of their membership. Simply stated, we do not work to be at odds with each other but to find a common voice; and while always representing our constituencies, we will have healthy discussions that serve to benefit not only our respective memberships but the credit union community as a whole. Fred R. Becker, Jr. President/CEO NAFCU Arlington, Va.