National Credit Union Administration
1775 Duke Street
Alexandria, VA 22314-3428
Phone: (703) 518-6330
Web Address: http://www.ncua.gov/

Study Recognizes Credit Unions and Matz for Supporting Payday Loan Alternatives

July 9, 2005, Baltimore, Md. – A new study conducted by former U.S. Treasury Department Assistant Secretary Sheila Bair cites five credit unions as models of how to provide alternatives to payday loans. The report also recognizes NCUA Board Member Debbie Matz as “the one federal financial regulator who has been the most vocal supporter of depository institutions developing their own low-cost payday loan alternatives.”

Bair, who is now the Dean’s Professor of Financial Regulatory Policy at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst School of Management, prepared the 83-page report for the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which is dedicated to building better futures for disadvantaged children.

“I hope that this report inspires more credit unions to offer affordable alternatives to the payday loans which are trapping millions of consumers in a vicious cycle of debt,” Matz remarked. “If more credit unions could build on the successful models which are presented so well in this report, millions more disadvantaged consumers would be able to provide better futures for their children.”

Matz arranged for the report to be handed out at NCUA’s 11th Partnering and Leadership Successes (PALS) workshop on July 8 in Baltimore, which attracted nearly 250 participants focused on providing alternatives to predatory lending.

“This report demonstrates that whether a credit union has more than $10 billion in assets or less than $10 million, they can leverage the resources to meet the urgent needs of members from all walks of life,” Matz pointed out.

The credit unions featured as models in the report have a wide range of assets and fields of membership ranging from state employees to military members to underserved areas:

• State Employees’ Credit Union in Raleigh, N.C. ($12 billion)
• Pentagon Federal Credit Union in Alexandria, Va. ($7 billion)
• ASI Federal Credit Union in Harahan, La. ($203 million)
• Windward Federal Credit Union in Kailua, Hawaii ($46 million)
• North Side Community Federal Credit Union in Chicago ($9 million)

The report, Low-Cost Payday Loans: Opportunities and Obstacles, will be posted on the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s website at www.aecf.org. A limited supply of bound copies is available through NCUA Board Member Matz’s office.

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A public service veteran of 25 years, Matz was named as a recess appointee to the NCUA Board in January 2002 and nominated to a seat on the Board on February 27, 2002. The U.S. Senate confirmed her on March 22, 2002. As part of the NCUA Board, Matz oversees the regulation of federal credit unions and the administration of the federal insurance fund covering approximately 9,300 credit unions in the U.S.

Matz is a member of three credit unions and resides in McLean, Va. with her husband and two children. Before her appointment to the NCUA Board, Matz was appointed by President Clinton as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Administration in the Department of Agriculture.