> Evidently the CUs don't see it the way you do. Did you notice
> this passage from The New Republic piece I posted earlier?
Or maybe it's TNR's view that doesn't match the credit union view?
I looked all over the NCUA's site and didn't see the exact memo, so it's hard to say whether the reporter got the tone right. The rest of the memos from National Credit Union Administration (which is a Federal regulatory agency, not some kind of industry group like you might think from the TNR article, by the way) seem to warn about *all kinds of things*, like low interest rates and their impact on the profitability of CUs. So sure: there's a risk that growing a CU could result in lower profitability ... but it doesn't appear to be a very big risk, and none of the CUs I looked at had anything but positive things to say about tomorrow and the uptick in new members in general.
The Credit Union National Association, on the other hand (which *is* the group that represents credit unions), seems to think this is a great thing. They are even hawking "Bank Transfer Day" t-shirts.
Here's something from today:
http://www.cuna.org/newsnow/11/system110311-10.html
<snip>
|> Meanwhile, credit unions continued to announce their
|> readiness to help consumers switch to credit unions tomorrow,
|> on Bank Transfer Day.
|>
|> However, they also emphasized, like CUNA's Cheney, that:
|> "Any day is a good day for a consumer to become a credit union
|> member. Saturday, Nov. 5, is one good day to join, and we
|> certainly encourage consumers to make the change. Because when
|> a consumer joins a credit union, he or she takes the first step
|> for themselves, and their families, in moving toward financial
freedom."
I'm not even sure I understand this statement (from TNR):
>> Indeed, a little more than a week ago, in anticipation of Bank
>> Transfer Day, the National Credit Union Administration sent out
>> a memo advising its federal regulators that ...
They *are* the regulator. Wouldn't be the first time that a cub reporter got things confused ...
/jordan