I really like this story in the LA Times about the opening of the Vashon Island branch of Puget Sound Cooperative Credit Union (h/t to Occupy Seattle’s Facebook).
The movement has spurred thousands of Americans to move their accounts out of mega-banks, but many have had to resort instead to big regional credit unions. Here, a group of hard-core Vashon activists, already seasoned in anticorporate campaigns, hit on the idea of merging with a small credit union to create a new branch on the island.
That office has managed, in its first year of operation, to enroll an astonishing 16% of the population and collect local deposits of almost $20 million.
“What surprised me about it was how rapidly the community embraced the credit union,” said Rob Harmon, a green economy pioneer who was part of the organizing committee. “We had wild dreams that in the first year $10 million would move. … And in the first year, $17.5 million moved. So we’re 70% above our wildest dreams.”
Last year, 1.3 million people across the U.S. joined credit unions, the lower-fee, not-for-profit alternative to commercial banks — double the rate from 2010. Once relegated to small offices at big companies, credit unions over the last 15 years have taken advantage of relaxed federal regulations to expand their membership.
…
Vashon organizers say the key to their success — a template they hope to share with other communities — was the decision to abandon the capital-intensive process of chartering their own credit union. Instead, they joined a small, existing credit union willing to cede substantial control in exchange for new members and deposits.
Harmon and Moyer were talking one day in 2009 about how to create a coal-free zone on the island. They needed to help people weatherize their homes, but none of the three Wall Street banks on the island wanted to make those kinds of loans except as home equity loans.
With the news of JP Morgan Chase losing $2 Billion in a way that shows they haven’t learned thing one, it’s quite timely.
So…..
Relaxed federal regulations for big banks is baaaaaaadddddddd.
Relaxed federal regulations for credit unions is goooooooodddddddd.
Got it.
@1
As you probably know, credit unions are more tightly regulated than banks. Both the article and Carl’s post say nothing about relaxing regulations on credit unions.
From the article:
A couple whose credit is so bad that a bank won’t give them a credit card balance higher than $300 is able to get a loan through the credit union.
One of the credit union’s board members has a history as a drummer, then a community organizer.
Let’s summarize:
The loans are concentrated on a small geographic region with a high percentage of rich people relative to other areas of King County.
They’ll be counting on rich folks’ money to cover their ass when the idiot loans they make to people who don’t qualify for credit elsewhere go bad.
What a business plan.
Yeah, this will end well.
@ 2
Scroll up:
Once relegated to small offices at big companies, credit unions over the last 15 years have taken advantage of relaxed federal regulations to expand their membership.
To reduce unemployment, let’s give drummers/community organizers jobs SITTING ON THE BOARD OF A FINANCIAL INSTITUTION.
They can learn a lot that way……with other peoples’ money:
Moyer, whose last job before becoming a community organizer was as a drummer, now finds himself sitting on the board of a bank — he got one of Vashon’s seats on the credit union’s governing board.
“I’ll tell you, I’m learning a lot about this whole financial institution thing,” he said.
‘…his whole financial institution thing.’
Let that sink in for a minute, then go rush off and deposit your hard-earned cash there. Go ahead. The government will take care of your refund when the shit hits the fan.
Bob,
At what institution do you do your banking?
Lordy, our trolls just get more and more insipid with each passing day.
@ 6
Whidbey Island Bank. They kept their noses clean during the meltdown and acquired Citybank of Lynnwood and North County Bank in the Skagit area when they went under. A branch 8 blocks from my office now. Another two miles from my home.
Why?
Drummer >> Community organizer >> Financial Institution Director
Community organizer >> Senator >> President
What could go wrong? I guess this dude’s next job is, what, governor?
For my part, I ditched B of A and Chase over twenty years ago for the Peninsula Credit Union. But Bob probably thinks I’m a fool for not trusting my money with Wall Street bankers. When I had a question for Chase about their jacking my credit card interest rate up to 29.95% for no apparent reason, I ended up having to talk to some foreigner working a phone bank in some third-world country who treated me like shit. With my credit union, I’m talking to members of my community.
High school bully, corporate bully, dog bully, president. Yeah, that makes so much more sense.
@ 10
There are untold reasons I think you to be a fool. What you do with your money is not one of them.
The reason they jacked your credit card rate up is probably that you were late on a payment. One reliable thing about you lefties is your inability to admit fault. Personal responsibility is a wholly foreign concept to you.
Funny thing about well-educated foreigners dealing with American deadbeats…… They seem not to like you very much, especially when their command of the English language is better than yours is.
“Foreigners”….. If I were to use that term wouldn’t you accuse me of dog-whistling, Steve? Don’t drop your guard too far. Your bigotry is showing.
@9: Fuck, you’re an idiot.
I’ve been a CU member since forever. I know people who run the place (the board and executive director), people I’ve worked with — engineers, secretaries, welders, machinists — you know, actual community members, regular folks focused on serving the community vice making a profit although they do just fine in that regard.
Jesus was a community organizer, asshole.
Fuck off and die.
@ 13
Ah, yes. It’s on the back of my currency: “In Community Organizer We Trust”.
Avoids all that separation of church and state shit.
Jesus, the dude all of you enlightened types claim doesn’t exist 99+ % of the time, now becomes your defense?
We’ll call this ‘Zotz’s Law’. When a lefty has to invoke Christ in defense of his point, his argument is already lost.
All you’re missing is the plastic red round nose and the big floppy shoes.
@4
Yep, I missed that. I really shouldn’t post before having my morning tea.
If I’m remembering correctly, those rules changed to allow more people to join credit unions, they did change how credit unions are run and credit unions are still more tightly regulated than banks.
Have you seen the list of failed banks? It’s pretty F’ing long. WA’s share of the deal is around 16 banks. Only one credit union has gone down. I think the model’s more than proven it’s self.
http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/banklist.html
As for the drummer turned banker, yeah that sounds kinda stupid. But, having seen what the banking industry’s done over the last decade and who they hired to do it…
@9
Seems to work better than this:
Entitled rich brat -> abuses animals and/or vulnerable humans -> trades on inherited connections/wealth -> runs for President
I’ll take the community organizer any day.
“Fuck off and die.”
I’ll second that.
“The reason they”
You have no clue what the problem with the bank was so you again resort to making shit up.
“with American deadbeats…… ”
Still making shit up.
“Foreigners” Do you have a better word to describe people from a unknown foreign country? Meanwhile, please continue to use “drummer” and “community organizer” in the perjorative.
Fuck off and die, Bob. The sooner the better.
@ 15
16:1 is only relevant if the number of banks relative to the number of credit unions before the failures began was greater than 16:1. I have no interest in checking but I’m guessing that your point is much smaller when you look at relative numbers.
Credit unions now trying to lend a greater percentage of their assets to businesses that can’t qualify elsewhere. They’re trying to expand into areas that have opened up as a result of banks tightening their lending rules.
Lots of info out there. Here’s an older source:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304739104575153893767250542.html
@ 17
And you know nothing about me but still saw fit to question my honesty yesterday, hypocrite.
Your bank didn’t jack up your rate to a usurious level because you were an angel and you know it. So does everyone else, so you are fooling nobody.
Got a problem with your interest rate? Pay cash. Oh, wait……..
“When a lefty has to invoke Christ in defense of his point, his argument is already lost.”
There is no argument, Bob. All you do is make shit up.
@ 20
Don’t you have a credit card bill to pay?
@19 Yeah, Bob, Wall Street banks are always right. They’ve never made a mistake. Idiot.
Question your honesty? You have none to question. All you do here is make shit up. Tiresome as it is, I call you on it. If you have a problem with that, then you can just fuck off and die, asshole.
@21 No, I don’t credit card payment to make.
Can you even post one comment without resorting to making shit up?
Steve defaults on credit card debt, bank’s shareholders take the loss.
Steve defaults on credit union credit card debt, fellow credit union members take the loss.
Either way, Steve has no problem with it. That iPad isn’t working right anymore, anyway.
Nope! Credit unions and banks operate under different sets of rules. Under their rules, credit unions weren’t allowed to do the sorts of things that banks did to get themselves in trouble.
Gotta go, busy day.
See ya, Michael. Apples to oranges.
I’ve been thinking about something lately. Ok, some people have sexual reassignment surgery. Men who feel like they were born a woman, and women who feel like they were born a man. Then they get an operation to make the body to fit the feeling. I guess my question is, what about animals? For example, what if a male cat is feels like he is a female, what is he supposed to do? Just stay in his male cat body? Should we, as humans, try to scientifically figure out which animals are trapped in the wrong sex’s body, and perform sexual reassignment surgery on them so they can live a happier life?
@ 27
What about just giving them a gender-neutral name, like…..
“Lucky” or “Spoticus”.
Then remove their gonads and let them be whatever they want.
“Steve defaults on credit card debt, bank’s shareholders take the loss.”
Making shit up.
“Steve defaults on credit union credit card debt, fellow credit union members take the loss.”
Making shit up.
“Either way, Steve has no problem with it. That iPad isn’t working right anymore, anyway.”
Making shit up.
Is that all you’ve got, Bob, making shit up? That’s fucking pathetic.
You really know how to pick your friends, Bob.
And yet you birth a goat when I use the word “foreigner” to describe, um, a foreigner.
@ 10 @ 29
Tell us, Steve:
Why did Chase raise your credit card rate to 29.95%?
Is that the rate it reserves for its best customers?
Or did you do something to cause it to happen?
You brought it up as if it happened through no fault of your own.
Clue us in. Enlighten us.
You just birthed a goat because I used the word foreigner, Bob. Does it bother you to discover that you’ve made a natural bond with the racists here who call blacks “niggers”? If you were not to respond with contempt and indignation several magnitudes above your hissy fit over the word “foreigner”, what would that tell us about you?
@ 30
Irrelevant. Yes, there are others, on both sides of the spectrum, who are bigoted.
I was talking about you.
“Foreigner”s. They’re the ones that get the jobs when the companies you don’t like outsource rather than deal with unions, right?
Foreigners with excellent English skills are the ones who have children who perform well in school and then come to this country on special visas and make more than you do, right?
“Foreigners”.
You mean people who are not like us, don’t you, Steve?
Foreigners.
@31 Oh, I see. You’re so terribly disturbed to learn that your new friends are racists that you feel the need go back to telling us how a bank could never, ever make a fucking mistake.
@ 34
So it was bank error? Your rate went from 12ish% to 29.95% because the bank erred?
That’s your story? Big bad Chase picked on liddle widdle Steve by more than doubling his rate for no reason at all?
Right. We’re buying it. All of us. No reason to question that.
““Foreigner”s. They’re the ones that get the jobs when the companies you don’t like outsource rather than deal with unions, right?”
Making shit up.
“Foreigners with excellent English skills are the ones who have children who perform well in school and then come to this country on special visas and make more than you do, right?”
Making shit up.
“You mean people who are not like us, don’t you, Steve?”
You mean like blacks are to your white racist buddies here at HA? No, that’s not what I meant.
“Irrelevant.”
No it isn’t. Why is the word “foreigner”, when used to describe a foreigner, so much more disturbing to you than the use of the word “nigger” by your friends?
It’s also a little known fact that under Obamacare, sexual reassignment surgery for animals like cats and dogs will be covered.
@ 36
“…. some foreigner….. in some third-world country…..”
No, nothing derisive there at all, Steve. You’re an angel. Step right up to the pearly gates.
@35 Anything to avoid talking about how you’re chummy with those here who call blacks niggers, huh?
@38 Chew on this again, Bob.
“Are you talking about the niggers”
Why are you good with that, Bob? Why are you not birthing a goat?
When you let people who are from shit countries into America, yes, you improve the quality of lives for the immigrants, but you also slowly ruin the quality of America itself. Think of it like this. Let’s say you have a large glass of water. And then you plop a teaspoon of shit into the glass. Does it in any way improve the glass of water?
@ 40
You bring up something someone wrote in April of 2009 to deflect from something you wrote an hour ago.
You dropped your mask. You got called on it. You’re flailing to try to get out of it.
First rule of holes, dude.
Done here.
@ 41
STFU.
So you support Wall Street banks over local credit unions, shipping jobs to other countries, and you see no problem with your friends calling blacks “niggers”. Oh, and you have issues with