A few words from Barbara Kamm, CEO – May 2013
Now that tax season has ended, I always feel that May is a good time to sit down and determine a financial strategy for the remainder of the year — a financial “spring cleaning” if you will. The warmer weather makes me want to open the windows and shake out what’s been accumulating for the past few months. And, yes, some of this involves actual housework. For example, consider shredding old financial documents, and scanning important papers into your computer. Clear off your desk and sign up to receive all of your bills online. Take a good look at your budget to see where you can increase your savings. With interest rates so low, consider refinancing your mortgage — potentially an easy way to lower your monthly costs.
Speaking of springtime and the future, I recently returned from the National Credit Union Roundtable — a semi-annual event bringing together CEOs from the largest credit unions to talk about the state of our industry. I spoke with many CEOs who are encountering the same challenges we are facing with the cap on member business lending, and learned that the bill that would help us (H.R. 688) is still stuck “in committee” and may not make it to a vote in the House. We also received a legislative update on the potential for Congress to tax credit unions. Here, we learned that in the recently released House Financial Services Committee report on tax reform for financial institutions, credit unions were mentioned 35 times — being recognized as having a “tax preference.” Stay tuned. We may be coming to you soon as part of a national call-to-action from credit unions to have you write your Congressmen and urge them to maintain the tax-exempt status of credit unions.