“President-elect Obama today introduced an economic team that is clearly well experienced and regarded in the realm of high finance. Our challenge within the credit union movement is now to ensure that the team has a clear understanding of the role of credit unions in serving 91 million American consumers, as well as the unique nature of credit unions as cooperative, not-for-profit financial institutions. That includes the vital issue of maintaining an independent regulator and insurance fund for credit unions. Developing this understanding is no unusual task for CUNA and credit unions – it is something we have done with nearly every new administration. Yet, we are consistently successful in developing a solid working relationship with each administration and impressing upon each with the need to support credit unions whenever they are considering action related to the financial system. We fully expect to be successful again and look forward to working with this new team.”