The San Francisco CDIAC, chartered to give advice to the Fed Board in Washington on regulatory concerns, payments matters and local economic conditions, includes just one credit union CEO. He is Ron Barrick of the $753 million Advantis CU of Milwaukie, Ore.

“I know they will be adding more CEOs to our CDIAC but it is hard to get people to serve,” said Hoveland. The San Francisco Fed so far is the only one to have just one CU representative. Others have at least two and some three.

A San Francisco Fed spokeswoman pledged to have one named by the next CDIAC meeting in the fall. Completing formation of its CDIAC comes at a time of transition in San Francisco Fed leadership with a new president taking over in March.

As for the CDIAC discussions and the tax exemption, Hoveland said “it seems only fair” that CUs pay taxes in the current economic environment.

The Covina banker, who sits on the national CDIAC as the12th Fed District representative, said the discussion was lively and intense with both CU and bank CEOs participating at an April 1 meeting in Washington.

“Oh yes, the Fed got an earful on Dodd-Frank and probably lots more than they deserved,” said Hoveland referring to the debit interchange clash.

Mark Wolff, senior vice president-communications at CUNA, said Hoveland's tax exemption swipe was more of the same anti-CU banker rhetoric.

“By 'acting like banks' Ms. Hoveland appears to be referring to the services credit unions offer—that's a line we often hear from those in the banking industry. But scope of services has never been the reason for credit unions' federal tax status,” said Wolff. “It's because credit unions are structured as member-owned, democratically controlled, and not for profit cooperatives. Banks do not fit that model.”