Pub. 8 2013-2014 Issue 3

September | October 2013 9 Extraordinary Service for Extraordinary Members. With Congress’ willingness to examine tax and fiscal policy, we’ve got an important opportunity to raise a key question: Why do taxpaying American consumers and businesses subsidize the credit union industry, which pays no taxes? C red i t un i ons today barely reflect their humble origins and basic mission of serving people of modest means. On June 26, 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the Federal Credit Union Act. Credit unions were based on a simple concept: Bring together a closely knit group of people, pool their resources, and pro- vide small loans for one another. The o r i g i na l f o c u s wa s on individuals with limited resources who might not otherwise have access to financial services. It gave credit unions a special and unique place in our financial system. That’s changed—a lot. As you knowall toowell, many credit unions have gone far beyond their original mission. With the freedom to seek new markets almost without restriction and to offer a full range of banking and financial products, many aggressive credit unions have leveraged their tax advantage to grow rapidly. In fact, credit unions are now a trillion-dollar industry, consisting of 208 credit unions with more than $1 billion in assets—each larger than 90 percent of all banks. In Nebraska, SAC Federal Credit Union would have paid $838,600 in taxes during 2012, had it paid its fair share. With $640 million in assets, it is the largest credit union in the state and bigger than 94 percent of Nebraska- headquartered banks. We’re calling on Congress to eliminate credit unions’ tax exemption. We’ve prepared a number of resources to help you share our message with lawmakers, policymakers, businesses, and people in your community. These resources are available online at www. aba.com/ItsTimeToPay. There you will find information for contacting your members of Congress, key messages, facts and graphics, a sample speech and PowerPoint slide deck, a sample newspaper op-ed and print ad, a sample website banner ad, and social media tools, including sample tweets, graphs, and videos. You also can listen to our recorded webinar on how to use the many online resources that we’ve put together for you. ABA has established a task force of bankers and state bankers association executives who will guide our approach Washington Update It’s Time to Pay Frank Keating , President & CEO, American Bankers Association  It’s Time — continued on page 10