BEAVERTON, Ore. — The financial turmoil shows the country needs credit unions “more than ever”, U. S. Sen. Ron Wyden, (D-Ore.) told Oregon CU leaders here.

In a speech to the annual convention of the Credit Union Association of Oregon, Wyden said “in times like these” CUs are functioning well and have had little or no trouble doing business as usual.

CUs keep financial markets competitive and offer an alternative to banks, said Wyden who also blamed the crisis on the failure by regulators to clamp down on risky mortgages.

In his remarks, the Oregon senator renewed his plug for his proposed Credit Card Safety Star Act which would set up a consumer-friendly rating system on card offerings and which had been previously introduced with Presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama.

Under the bill, the Federal Reserve would rate cards based on how best consumers could handle “tricky terms” with those cards rated worst and those with favorable terms the lowest scores. CUNA has said it is aware of the Wyden bill but is not on its high priority list.

Wyden told the CUAO convention CUs should get behind this bill considering consumers are getting “clobbered like a wrecking ball” by card debt. Card debt remains the third leg of a very wobbly economic stool, he said with subprime mortgage and high gas prices remaining legs.