SYNOPSIS OF FINDINGS FROM MEETINGS AND CORRESPONDENCE 

 WITH CREDIT UNION REPRESENTATIVES 



The more than 20,000 Credit Unions in the United States control 13 - 15% 

 of consumer credit. Membership in credit unions is projected to increase 

 from its present number of 25 million to kO million by 1980. About 12,500 

 credit unions are chartered and insured through the auspices of the Federal 

 Government. The remaining Credit Unions are State chartered and most are 

 insured. Where there is no insurance membership deposits are protected via 

 provisional insurance thereby enabling the credit union industry to claim 

 that they have not experienced losses to members for several decades. 



To facilitate transfer of funds from one credit union to another under a 

 nationalized concept, legislation is pending in Congress to establish a 

 "Central Bank" for credit unions. 



The Credit Union National Association surveyed credit union membership and 

 some of the statistics obtained provide the basis for the following 

 statements . 



It appears that, currently, very few credit union members 

 are social security beneficiaries. 



Credit union members appear to be highly educated and enjoy 

 high incomes. {h0% had at least some college and 69% claimed 

 to have a family income greater than $10,000.) 



The credit union representatives stated they felt that credit unions were 

 in an excellent position to provide a personalized service to retired 

 workers. They envisioned that employer oriented credit unions would adopt 

 a policy of encouraging retirees to retain accounts in their credit unions. 

 This would pave the way for large quantities of directly deposited social 

 security payments to credit unions. 



The representatives felt that credit unions who solicited social security 

 beneficiaries would forward information to beneficiaries and would advise 

 SSA of death by returning payments in accordance with Treasury regulations. 



In the discussion of possible methods to directly deposit benefit payments 

 in credit unions it was conjectured that CUNADATA (the credit unions data 

 processing organization) might develop a system not to exceed banking 

 industry standards in conjunction with the Government. 



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