Y14

TAXES

Report Favors Exemption

A working group report on
tax reform delivered to the
the House Ways and Means
Committee May 6 was overall
good news for credit unions,
but it included some recom-
mendations to scrap the tax
exemption, too.
On the one hand, the report
from the working group on
charitable/exempt organiza-
tions summarized the input it
received to be overall in favor
of retaining the credit union
tax exemption.
And, the working group on
financial services reported
submissions it received sug-
gest Congress should retain
the tax-exempt status

TRENDS Should Branches Be Added to The Endangered Species List?

SECURITY
Threatened
DDoS Hack
Fizzles
HEATHER ANDERSON

ROBERT MCGARVEY

rjmcgarvey@gmail.com

Y14

MBL

Women Fear Rejection

At a time when some credit
unions are looking for ways
to boost their loan portfolios,
they may want to consider
giving more consideration to
two groups that fear seeking
out financing for their busi-
ness start-ups or expansions.
Rather than apply for capi-
tal from lenders, women and
minorities are more likely to
turn to their own savings to
start or grow their businesses,
according to a new report from
the SBA Office of Advocacy,
“Access to Capital Among
Young Firms, Minority-Owned
Firms, Women-Owned Firms,
and High-Tech Firms.”
The data showed
he one clear fact in the
raging debate about
the role of branches
for credit unions is that
the voices are getting louder on
both sides, with some insisting
that clinging to branches is stran-
gling the industry’s profitability
while others say that the person-
alization is what makes credit
unions different.

Y16

back to the recent economic
downturn in 2008, but hard
numbers provided by Parth Ka-
poor, industry analyst at Calla-
han & Associates, show a drop
of exactly 406 net credit union
branches from 2008 to 2012.
That’s around a 2% de-
MORTGAGES
Little Impact Seen From GSE Change
DAVID MORRISON

he bulk of credit union
and CUSO mortgage
programs will see mini-
mal impact from Fannie
However, credit union’s abil-
ity to offer more tailored housing
finance loans or some to lower
income members may be restrict-
ed by the move, other executives
argued.

Y15

writing standards and thus were qualified mortgages already.

Victor Patroni, CEO of Mortgage Markets, which provides housing finance services to 25 Connecticut credit unions, reported that his CUSO writes mortgages that conform already to Fannie and Freddie underwriting standards and only rarely underwrite loans that don’t. For example, a very few of its member credit unions have needed a mortgage loan underwritten with a term of longer than

Y18

U.S. Department of Homeland Security memo that said the May 7 distributed denial of service attacks threatened by the so-called “hacktivist” collective Anonymous against government and financial websites would be more bark than bite prove to be true.

As of the morning of May 8, NCUA Public Affairs Specialist John Fairbanks said the agency had not received any reports of credit unions being hit with the threatened May 7 attacks. Likewise, targeted credit unions reported no ill effects.

Jeanette Mack, manager, corporate communications for the $54 billion Navy FCU of Vienna, Va., reported all operations were normal. Representatives from the $5.6 billion American Airlines FCU of Fort Worth, Texas; the $27 billion State Employees’ Credit Union of Raleigh, N.C.; and the $6.2 billion San Diego County Credit Union also reported no problems.

Mack, SECU President/CEO Jim Blaine and SDCCU President/CEO Teresa Halleck added that their organizations will continue to be prepared for the attacks.

“With [May 7] being the announced date, everybody gears up,” Halleck said, “but it could happen any day. So, we are main-

Women to
Watch
For Stacie Wyss-
Schoenborn, vice
president of member
solutions at BECU,
the term status quo
simply isn’t in her
vocabulary. Y6

Obamacare Opportunities The Affordable Health Care Act is likely to provide more options for credit unions, says John, Harris, the CEO of CU Insurance & Benefits Alliance. Y10