Bankers Slam CUNA's ‘Open Your Eyes’ Campaign

The Independent Community Bankers of America has blasted CUNA’s upcoming awareness campaign, charging that the promotion is a taxpayer-funded effort to maintain an unlevel playing field in financial services.

“It is time for all of us to open our eyes to the misuse of our tax dollars by a rapidly expanding industry that profits from an unlevel playing field,” ICBA President/CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey wrote in a blog post.

CUNA officials recently announced that they intend to raise $100 million to fund and maintain a research-driven credit union awareness campaign, “Open Your Eyes to a Credit Union.”

“I guess buying up stadium naming rights isn’t cutting it anymore,” Rainey said.

She said that CUNA should have no problem raising the money particularly since the Joint Committee on Taxation estimated the credit union tax exemption at more than $10 billion through 2021.

And she added that the NCUA is allowing credit unions to expand beyond their legal limits.

“With the National Credit Union Administration working nonstop to drastically increase the powers of the industry it is charged with regulating beyond their statutory limits, credit unions have become virtually indistinguishable from taxpaying banks,” she said.

She said as a result of that expansion, Congress is “beginning to rethink the tax exemption.”

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) has questioned whether the tax exemption is outdated and has requested that the IRS begin requiring federal credit unions to file informational tax returns—something that state credit unions already file.

However, Acting IRS Commissioner David Kautter last month sent Hatch a letter supporting the senator’s transparency efforts, but made no commitment about requiring federal credit unions to file tax returns.

And so far, no other member of Congress has publicly joined Hatch in raising those concerns.

Asked for a response to the ICBA’s broadside, Douglas Kiker, CUNA’s chief strategic communications officer, said the organization’s campaign simply will convince people that they should use credit unions.

“The Creating Awareness Initiative will be a game-changer for America’s credit unions and for consumers,” he said. “When Americans learn about the aspirational and advancement-minded benefits that credit unions provide, choosing one as their best financial partner will be a no-brainer.”