She said the task force and community bankers across the country will focus attention on the trend, which she said again illustrates "how far credit unions have strayed from the original purpose underlying their tax exemption."

She said the trade group will continue to push for elimination of that tax exemption.

ICBA officials said that in the nine credit union-community bank acquisitions during the past year, the total assets of the acquiring credit unions were $24 billion, while the community bank assets totaled $2.3 billion.

ICBA said that that credit unions also have a competitive edge because they are not subject to rules such as the Community Reinvestment Act.

The group charged that the NCUA has acted as an advocate for the industry rather than a regulator and that the agency has constructed "bureaucratic obstacles and roadblocks to credit union conversions and mergers that make it more difficult for a bank to acquire a credit union than vice versa."

The $1.6 billion Arizona Federal Credit Union recently announced that it intends to purchase the $236 million Pinnacle Bank in Scottsdale, the seventh such transaction this year.

One credit union lobbyist fired back at the bankers.

"If they're really interested in helping their members, ICBA should form a task force to assist banks in converting to credit unions, since bankers are clearly waking up to the appeal of the credit union model," said John McKechnie, senior partner at Total Spectrum.

The ICBA last week sent letters to the congressional committees that oversee the NCUA asking for an investigation related to problems with taxi loans that were cited in recent New York Times stories.

NAFCU President/CEO B. Dan Berger fired back in his own letters, telling the members of Congress that "If they had their way, ICBA would have the NCUA regulate credit unions out of existence."