What Is It About Credit Unions? Cliff Rosenthal The former Director and CEO of the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions discusses the Credit Union Membership Access Act, and its implications for the community development credit union movement. Credit unions are the biggest segment of the cooperative movement—110 million members, more than a trillion dollars in combined assets. Yet most surveys show that only a minority of credit union members actually know their financial institution is a cooperative, and what that means—such as one member, one vote; unpaid board of directors; nonprofit—but not charities; no federal taxes. Of the 5,600 credit unions in the United States today, a small portion have an explicit mission of empowering low-income and minority people. In New York City, we have some of the best examples—the Lower East Side People’s Federal Credit Union, Neighborhood Trust FCU in Washington Heights, Brooklyn Cooperative FCU headquartered in Bushwick, and about a dozen more, including some longstanding credit unions in African American churches. They’re known as community development credit unions (CDCUs). Survival is always a challenge for […]
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