When I was in Washington D.C. for the GAC this year, I had never seen the concern over the tax exemption as strong as it was this year. What about you? Has 2025 been the biggest threat you’ve seen?

Yes, I would say during my time in the credit union movement – about 12 years now – it’s the biggest threat, the most significant challenge, and the one that, quite frankly, our credit unions have responded so favorably to, by encouraging their members to write members of Congress and their staffs. And there’s some understandable reluctance at times to do that when you have tens of thousands of members or more in some cases, even small credit unions’ members have views on just about everything like people in our society do. But the significant threat to the industry was so mobilizing and unifying, and of course we had great news with the House Ways and Means Committee. Now, the battle’s not over, so we hope that our credit unions will stay engaged the way they have been through the next few steps of the process, the house floor, and then the Senate. So we think the House will still try to vote on this this week and then it’ll go to the Senate. And so we’ll see how we do.

I was going to ask you about next steps, but let’s go back to January. When did you realize this was going to be a serious problem?

I can’t say there was one singular moment. I think it became evident to the leaders in the credit union movement, and then, also, to all of our members in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and across the country, that this was a significant threat. I mean, to help pay for the 2017 tax cuts, to make them permanent in the country, was going to require trillions of dollars, and we had plenty of other stakeholder groups and industries targeting the credit union industry. And so we really had to up our game. And I think the leagues across the country including America’s Credit Unions, and most importantly, the credit unions themselves, just were so open to mobilizing their memberships. We generated over 80,000 letters to Congress just from Pennsylvania and New Jersey. It’s incredible… 800,000 letters to members of Congress from the credit union movement across the country in literally just weeks. It’s just outstanding. So the unifying effort that we saw was really spectacular, but again, we need to be vigilant to get through. But our odds increased. The biggest hurdle was that first hurdle – the House Ways and Means.

How far did you guys get with planning for what it might look like if the tax exemption did go away? Did you ever start thinking ‘we need to talk about what happens if we lose this?’

No, I think just as part of the planning process. While it wasn’t top of mind or top of the agenda publicly, anticipating what that might look like so that we could respond quickly if we needed to, which to date we haven’t. And we hope that we won’t, but we won’t know until it’s through the Senate. And the president signs whatever hits his desk. But I think it became apparent that it was a serious threat, and so we really thought part of our advocacy was explaining to members of Congress what it would look like in communities throughout our two states and our footprint as CrossState and across the nation if the tax exemption were no longer in place. And all the great work that credit unions do to give back to their members, small businesses, other stakeholders in their communities, and the way that they uplift those that are underserved across the country – all of that was in jeopardy. And that really helped, I think, make the case as part of our personal advocacy efforts – meeting with legislators on Capitol Hill or in their districts. Hearing the credit union stories, every story told, every advocate that was activated, really made a difference.

If you ran into somebody who banks with J.P. Morgan or Bank of America and they said ‘why should I care? I’m not a credit union member. Why should I care if they lose the tax exemption?’ What would you say?

I would say that it’s going to change the face of your community. It’s going to look a lot different. There are people who need access to great products and services that otherwise wouldn’t be made available to them. That’s going to have a spinoff effect in communities and across our footprint and around the country. And so, not only did Congress help credit unions by not including it at this first hurdle with the House Ways and Means Committee, but they were helping communities all over the country. There are about 142 million members of credit unions across the country. But I think the community impact would have been significant all over the place.

So you said you’re not out of the woods yet. Is there a step in the process that you guys are looking toward where you will feel okay for now?

Well, I think we wanted to pause briefly to celebrate the unity of the credit union movement and the effectiveness of their advocacy efforts and the coordination that leagues had with America’s Credit unions and our credit unions across the country, but we quickly pivoted to the fact that it’s not over, and we can’t rest on our laurels. We need to continue to remain engaged. That said, I think our odds have improved significantly because it’s harder to get yourself out of something that’s moving than to get amended back in. And I think, considering the big dollars that Congress had to find to pay for making these tax cuts permanent, the credit union piece would have provided lots of dollars to you and I, but in the grand picture it would be pretty small in terms of what’s really needed. And so to be put back in now…doesn’t mean it can’t happen, which is why we’re staying vigilant, but the odds have definitely improved. But we’re not going to rest until it’s through the House floor, through the U.S. Senate, and the President signs it, then we can really celebrate our collective victory.

Do you feel like maybe the industry as a whole had kind of let its guard down a little bit, and this was a reminder that the exemption is never totally safe?

No, I really don’t. That’s a fair question. And I do think there were a few bumps along the way at the beginning of our collective advocacy process. But I think we learned very quickly that our greatest strength is the fact that leagues are so connected with one another. And frankly, the talent that we have at the state and regional level representing this industry is second to none. I came here 12 years ago from the restaurant industry in a very similar role. Pretty strong connection there between the state and regional groups and the national, but nothing like we have here. So the connection with our national trade, the leagues, and then the willingness of credit unions to roll their sleeves up when we really needed them to made a world of difference. I don’t think it was that we were not prepared. I just think we learned a couple lessons at the beginning, and very quickly retooled the effort. And so, I think it was a very effective coordinated effort across the country.

Switching gears, what is CrossState’s position about the situation with the NCUA board? Are you okay if it ultimately remains a one-man entity?

I think CrossState will continue to support an independent regulatory agency for credit unions. We’ll continue to advocate for a full board of three members. The good news is we think there is some capacity to continue to serve credit unions as a regulator with one board member. I know there’s some legitimate concern within our industry about possibly the Administration trying to combine entities, and there could be some truth to that. We don’t know for sure. But to unwind the NCUA would be difficult and require Congressional action and a lot of steps. So I think one of the benefits to the industry might be that there could be a more reasonable viewpoint on regulation from the regulator. But we do support an independent regulator, and we do support having three board members. And we’ll continue to advocate for that, and in the meantime, try to work with the NCUA to ensure they’re able to do what they need to do, which I think most of us believe they can, until we get out of the woods and sort of figure out what this looks like in the long term. Because I really don’t think we know yet.