ARLINGTON, Va. — NAFCU Director of Legislative Affairs Brad Thaler wrote key members of Congress that credit unions are better serving those of modest means and minorities than for-profit financial institutions.

"Credit unions play an important role in providing important financial services to underserved individuals. Many of these consumers are members of the low income and minority populations of our society," he said. The letter was sent on the eve of a hearing, Rooting Out Discrimination in Mortgage Lending: Using HMDA as a Tool for Fair Lending Enforcement, in the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations; NCUA was slated to testify (See related story, page 6).

He cited the latest Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data as evidence of credit unions' commitment to these consumers. "An analysis of the recently released 2005 HMDA Data shows that credit unions are making smaller mortgage loans than banks and thrifts and have a higher percentage of their mortgage loans going to low- and moderate-income borrowers," Thaler stated. "Credit unions make a higher percentage of their mortgage loans (97%) under the conforming loan limit than banks (90%) and thrifts (86%). Furthermore, an analysis of the HMDA data show that 18.8 percent of credit unions' loans went to households with less than $40,000 in income compared to 16.1 percent at banks and 12.4 percent at thrifts."