ALEXANDRIA, Va -- It's no surprise that the NCUA would not favor a proposal from the U.S. Treaury that would eliminate a specific credit union charter and the agency itself, but the agency refrained from actually saying that and chose instead to couch its objections in terms of credit union members not being well served by a "blurring" of depository charters.

"Credit unions provide an important and unique financial services alternative for America's consumers. Credit unions, as member owned and democratically controlled cooperatives, are fundamentally different in both their structure and mission from other financial service providers," the agency said in a prepared statement. "The cooperative form of organization, and the mission of serving a broad spectrum of consumers, including those of modest means, have fostered a credit union system that consistently provides better rates for consumers across a broad range of products and that consistently outranks the competition in consumer satisfaction surveys."

The agency noted that it had sent a comment letter to the Treasury about the proposal in Nov. 2007 but refrained from commenting on whether the department had paid attention to the agency's opinions.