With National Small Business Week starting on May 20, a few thoughts about what small business owners should know about Capitol Hill these days.
I hope the thoughts will resonate since I really come at them from two points of view: credit union trade association CEO...
(3) Comments | Posted March 14, 2012 | 4:21 PM
This month the government released figures showing more than 1.3 million people joined credit unions in 2011 -- more than double the previous year's total of less than 600,000. The gain is strong evidence that consumers are fed up with high bank fees and are leaving in large...
(26) Comments | Posted November 1, 2011 | 3:44 PM
The movement toward credit unions over the last several weeks has been nothing less than phenomenal. For us in the credit union movement, it is confirmation of our long-standing tenant that credit unions are "people helping people."
But it doesn't have to end this Saturday. As Kristen Christian -- the...
(7) Comments | Posted May 3, 2011 | 3:19 PM
When I was the CEO of a large credit union in California, I saw firsthand how consumers could panic -- and rightly so -- when their credit or debit cards were lost or stolen.
We obviously couldn't always prevent the initial panic, but we knew what to...
(3) Comments | Posted March 29, 2011 | 6:04 PM
It's easy and popular to demonize the big banks of Wall Street. In many cases, they deserve it. But the attempt by retailers, big and small, to cast the current political battle over debit card interchange as a fight between Wall Street and Main Street (with merchants, of course, claiming...
(4) Comments | Posted January 20, 2011 | 12:11 PM
Some recent media reports have said small banks and credit unions are the big winners in the regulatory battle over how much revenue financial institutions should derive from the use of debit cards. (In industry terms, this is known as debit interchange revenue). Credit unions and small banks have a...
(32) Comments | Posted August 12, 2010 | 10:57 AM
The banks are at it again: Putting their interests ahead of those of consumers and small business owners.
When Congress finally broke for its summer home-district work period this week, banks had not budged from stubbornly blocking a commonsense approach for creating more jobs: legislation that would give credit unions...

(5) Comments | Posted May 17, 2012 | 2:53 PM