Listen to this latest barrage of anti-credit union rhetoric:“The credit union industry is controlled by well paid insiders of afew trade groups which themselves are controlled by a relativelysmall minority of very large dues paying credit unions. It is thesmaller credit unions that tend to stick to their original mission,which is to help low-income people get fair access to financialservices. But many of these smaller credit unions have enormousneeds that are not being met. Many of the large credit union CEOshave little or no interest in helping low-income people or theirsmaller brethren.” Sound familiar? Just more of the same old stufffrom banking lobbyists trying to harm credit unions, right? Notreally. These words are taken from an article in the October 15,2004 issue of The Northwestern Financial Review, a publication thatwe've been told is well read within the banking industry. At theend of the full-page article, which mostly blasts credit uniontrade groups, large credit unions, and those who manage them, andadvises banking lobbyists how to win the battle, is a briefbiographical sketch of the author: “Norm D'Amours is a formercongressman who served on the Banking Committee and was chairman ofthe National Credit Union Administration from 1993 to 2000.D'Amours delivered these comments at the Iowa Bankers Associationconvention.” Those familiar with that mid-September D'Amours Iowaspeech to the bankers in the home state of current NCUA ChairmanJoAnn Johnson, have wondered out loud if the most unpopularchairman ever to head NCUA will ever stop criticizing creditunions? Not likely, now that he appears to have found a lucrativeway to make money while doing what he did consistently even aschairman, namely attack credit unions and CU organizations everychance he got. But now it looks like D'Amours has found a whole newcareer on the banking industry speaking circuit. I would assumethat the dozens of not-for-profit, tax-exempt, 501 (C) 6 bankinggroups pay well, at least to someone with former credit unioncredentials (although tainted) like D'Amours? D'Amours continues tobe a one trick pony as he was during his NCUA tenure. Don't take myword for it. Here's how D'Amours himself put it in the leadparagraph of that same Financial Review article: “You can'tgeneralize about credit unions. All big credit unions aren't bad;and some small credit unions aren't always great. I've seen somebig credit unions doing a magnificent job reaching out to lowincome people. Unfortunately, their numbers aren't large.” Creditunion leaders were never able to convince Chairman D'Amours thatcredit unions were doing an excellent job of serving all of theirmembers. Everyone but the banking lobbyists and D'Amours understoodthat included members at all income levels. What's probably moredisturbing than his latest diatribes which include nothing new isthe fact that D'Amours has been out of the loop so long that hedoesn't know, or chooses to ignore, all the changes NCUA and creditunions have made since he was fired by the President and booted outof NCUA. Under initiatives put in place by former Chairman DennisDollar, credit unions have been able to take in millions ofpotential members from low-income areas. In fact, once Dollarturned around the negativity and board in-fighting so prevelantwhen D'Amours was in charge, the list of what credit unions havebeen able to do for members and potential members became long andimpressive. Yet, D'Amours devotes considerable space in his articleclaiming that credit unions do basically nothing for the“underserved,” certainly far less than banks do. He goes on tolayout a strategy for banks to use this erroneous fact to theiradvantage in attacking CUs. Almost as soon as D'Amours was hired togive that speech to bankers in Iowa, Credit Union Times heard aboutit and decided it would be worth covering for our readers. The IowaBankers said we were not allowed to do so. When asked why, theyadmitted that D'Amours requested that no credit union press be inthe room when he spoke. He singled out Credit Union Times as theone publication he especially did not want to cover his remarks inIowa. When our editors learned that the banking and mainstreampress were going to be allowed in, we reminded the Iowa BankersAssociation that as a not-for-profit, tax-exempt organization theycouldn't pick and choose which members of the press could haveaccess. They still refused to budge. Eventually we madearrangements for an independent journalist to cover the event withno indication that he or she would be doing the story for us. Theone-upmanship finally ceased when the Iowa Bankers decided thatD'Amours would make his presentation in a government affairssession which has traditionally been a closed session. So we gaveup on the idea of being on hand to see what D'Amours would have tosay about credit unions to the bankers. Then along comes hisarticle summarizing the high points (low points?) of his speech.What a shame that someone who made his living off of credit unionsfor so long decided to join forces with those who would likenothing better than to put credit unions out of business, eventhose doing a good job of serving the underserved. Final thought:It seems clear that D'Amours hopes to be invited by many otherbanking groups. Thus, whenever credit unions learn that D'Amours isspeaking in their area, they should consider writing letters to theeditor before and/or after he speaks. These letters should put whohe is in perspective. They should include the fact that thePresident fired him four years ago and that he has had noinvolvement with credit unions ever since. They should set therecord straight. Comments? Call 1-800-345-9936, Ext. 15, or Fax561-683-8514, or E-mail [email protected].