In advance of Thursday's NCUA board meeting, the American Bankers Association on Wednesday called for Chairman Debbie Matz to rethink a proposal on credit union field of membership.

In a letter to Matz and the other members of the NCUA board, ABA's incoming President/CEO Rob Nichols said the proposal steps outside the bounds laid out by Congress, allowing credit unions to move even further away from the narrow common bonds that define their missions.

The letter quickly prompted a response from NAFCU and others. NAFCU President/CEO Dan Berger penned a letter to leaders on the Senate Banking Committee and the House Financial Services Committee. In it he said NAFCU was disappointed the ABA chose to attack the proposal before it was even released and the details were known.

“It would seem that they are only interested in attacking credit unions and their 101 million members, rather than creating sound public policy. Perhaps the banking trade association should have paid this much attention to their own members and actions prior to the financial crisis. If so, maybe their members, the nation's big banks, would not have faced over $100 billion in fines, settlements and buy-backs stemming from the financial crisis,” Berger wrote.

John McKechnie, partner at Washington-based advocacy firm Total Spectrum and former Director of Public and Congressional Affairs at the NCUA, told CU Times, “The fact that ABA is commenting on possible field of membership reforms before the rule is even out speaks volumes about the political resistance this rule will encounter from the bank lobby.”

McKechnie urged credit unions not to ignore the comment process, and called for credit unions to respond with smart, substantive comments.