WASHINGTON–In advance of its Capital Summit in Washington next week, the Independent Community Bankers of America is distributing a lobby card on Capitol Hill that calls for, among other things, taxing credit unions of more than $1 billion in assets. It is a call the bankers’ group has made previously.
America’s Credit Unions has responded by calling it just more “misinformation.”
As it has in the past, the ICBA said it wants to see the largest credit unions lose their tax exemption as part of the 2025 tax legislation Congress is now considering. As the CU Daily has reported, credit unions have been lobbying aggressively against any such change.
‘Functional Equivalent of Banks’
“Many of today’s tax-subsidized credit unions are multi-billion-dollar institutions that are the functional equivalent of commercial banks, competing in the same markets for the same customers and offering the same services,” the ICBA states on its lobby card. “Last year, this wasteful and outmoded tax subsidy financed a record number of acquisitions of taxpaying community banks. Each acquisition reduces tax revenues for federal, state, and local governments while cutting off a critical source of small-business and agricultural lending for local communities.”
America’s CUs Responds
In response, America’s Credit Unions President and CEO Jim Nussle said in a statement, “Bankers are continuing to resort to misinformation about the credit union industry to reduce competition and better leverage themselves with lawmakers. The claim that large credit unions have an unfair advantage is nonsensical, especially when banks are seeing record earnings and hold 91 percent of total financial institution assets. The size of a credit union does nothing to change its mission, which is to serve their communities and provide their members with the financial services they need to thrive. Credit unions, leagues, and America’s Credit Unions will continue to challenge the misleading agenda pushed by bankers so that consumers continue to have competitive financial services.”
Other Issues Raised
Other positions taken by the ICBA on the lobby card:
- Opposition to the CFPB’s Section 1071 Rule
- The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Must be Extended
- Support for Agricultural Lending and Rural America
- Support Community Bank Formation, Growth, and Tiered Regulation
- Restricting the Sale of Mortgage “Trigger Leads”
- Access to Credit for Rural Economies (ACRE) Act
- Ensure Stablecoin Frameworks Don’t Harm Community Banks
- Oppose Credit Card Routing Mandates
