In Scott Simpson’s view, credit unions are under attack. And starting this fall, he’ll get the chance to defend them from his highest perch yet.
On Nov. 3, Simpson will become president and CEO of America’s Credit Unions, the industry’s largest U.S. trade association. Simpson enters the job with a wealth of experience, having served as CEO of Utah’s Credit Unions since 2003, as well as the California Credit Union League and Nevada’s Credit Unions since May 2024.
But Simpson isn’t waiting until November to speak up for credit unions. In his view, the lenders face an existential threat from banking advocates who seek to eliminate their mostly tax-exempt status. He also fiercely defends credit unions’ right to acquire banks, as they’ve been doing with
America’s Credit Unions
But there’s an olive branch woven through Simpson’s arguments: On almost everything to do with regulation, he says, banks and credit unions are in agreement. The only quarrel, in his view, is that banks can’t stand having competitors whose products are cheaper.
“But for the fact that we exist, banks and credit unions are on the same side of the table,” Simpson said. “Most of those issues, we’re together. It’s just that one little thing: the fact that we exist.”
In a wide-ranging interview, Simpson talked to American Banker about how he plans to navigate that complicated rivalry, the threats credit unions face in Washington and elsewhere, and how life-changing experiences in his own family fostered his love of credit unions.
Below is a transcript of that interview, edited for length and clarity:
American Banker: Congratulations, first of all, on your new position. When you start the job, what are your top priorities going to be?
Scott Simpson: One of the important things is to make sure that the credit union family is convened. That’s what a trade association does, is to gather the membership and help them understand one another, and for us to be listening to the membership and understanding the stress points. … Obviously we have the responsibility, the obligation, to engage policymakers and to defend and enhance the operating environment in which credit unions live, and we’re going to make sure that our organization is optimized and keep our foot on the gas.
AB: In terms of that defense, in recent months the tax-exempt status of credit unions has come into some question in Washington. In the end, the Big Beautiful Bill left that status alone. But are you concerned at all that future legislation might put that status in jeopardy again?
Simpson: Well, I would suggest that it’s never not been in jeopardy. I mean, I’ve been working in the credit union space, defending and working to protect the business model for 22 years. It’s perennial. So it’s highly predictable that our detractors would try to take advantage of any opportunity to tell that story. So yeah, it’s obviously on our radar. It’s important to us. But the reason it’s important to us is because we think it’s a clear attempt to try to destroy the business model.
So then, if that’s the assumption — which I believe is fact — you have to ask yourself the question, Why? Why do they care? … I don’t believe they care about our market share. Single digit market share — that’s not the point. The point is: What can they charge for the 97, 95% of the pie that they already have?
AB: Can you explain that a little bit? So you feel like the issue is not the market share. It’s more that credit unions are charging lower rates and so on, and that changes the expectations that consumers have?
Simpson: Yeah, I mean. … They care about what they can charge for the 93% that they have, and the fact that we exist puts downward pressure on their pricing, their margin. That is what I believe is our reality, because otherwise we agree on almost everything.
AB: So I guess then the next question is, what do you plan to do to defend that tax-exempt status?
Simpson: What we’ve always done is remind policymakers that there are 144 million Americans that chose to enter into a retail financial services relationship with a cooperative. And their lives are transformed by that relationship. They’re allowed to keep more of their own money. And we know this — it’s math. When you allow people to keep more of their money, the economy is fueled exponentially. And so if you score the credit union tax exemption roughly for every dollar that the government doesn’t collect from our membership, it induces $10 in economic fuel. And you know, if you’re in the business of trying to create economic prosperity in this country as a policymaker, that’s a program I would authorize every year.
AB: Speaking of things banks don’t like, another recent trend is that more and more credit unions have been buying banks. Do you expect to see more deals like that in the next year and a half?
Simpson: Yeah. I mean, I’m using history to predict the future. But again, same answer: Context. What’s the context of that question? In the last decade, more than 2,000 M&A transactions. Credit unions are responsible for roughly 40 of them. … And yet, somehow, there’s somebody trying to tell the story that with all that the U.S. Congress has to think about today, that’s what we’re going to use public energy on.
AB: So what do you plan to do to defend your side of that issue?
Simpson: We’ll be coming with the denominator all day, every day, delivering context and understanding.
AB: A few months ago, President Trump terminated two members of the board of the NCUA. That decision and its legality are caught up in court right now, and the outcome is uncertain. I’m wondering if you could just tell me if you have any concerns about that and how you plan to handle that issue.
Simpson: Well, I think the position of our industry is pretty solid. We want to continue to have a regulator that has a full complement on his board, and we’re very supportive of that. But there’s also the reality that we don’t get to pick who’s there. That’s not our role as a trade association. That belongs to the president and the Congress, and in this case, the judiciary is getting involved. So we don’t get to decide that, but we will continue to evangelize the absolute — what we believe is a necessity. We think it’s the right thing for us to have our own regulator that’s fully functioning.
AB: And what other challenges do you see ahead? Is there anything else that you plan on tackling as you take over this role?
Simpson: Well, I have enormous empathy for credit unions that have to run their shops — and I guess, by extension, you could give that to everybody that’s running a business in America. …
We need our government to understand the impact that rulemaking and the regulatory environment and even the noble aspirations of government — what impact that really has on the street, on Main Street, in the homes of American consumers. You’ve got sort of a one-size-fits-all application of regulation that comes down, and is a crushing load on financial institutions. And the smaller the institution, the smaller the credit union, the more intense that pressure is. And some of that is just flat unnecessary.
AB: And what opportunities do you see ahead? Anything in particular that you’re looking forward to or excited about?
Simpson: Well, yes: The rest of America gets to discover what a credit union is. And that’s a huge opportunity. … We’ve got a great story to tell. It’s unfolding. The cool part is, we’ve been delivering on it for 100 years, and there are hundreds of millions of people whose lives have been blessed because there was cooperative finance in this country. I have my own family experiences. My grandmother, my father-in-law — both of them had transformational experiences because they were members of a credit union.
AB: Can you tell me about some of those personal stories?
Simpson: Sure, I can tell you one: my grandmother. My grandfather died when he was 54 years old. She was a single mom, still had teenagers in the house. He was ill for a while. She worked out of the home. I kind of viewed her as a Rosie the Riveter. She worked for a defense contractor soldering circuitry. For a kid, I thought it was outstanding. She did the helmet sight for the
Her credit union allowed her to afford life as a single mother. Who would have given her a loan for a refrigerator then? So that, for my family, was transformational.
AB: They gave her loans for appliances and things like that?
Simpson: Yeah, and a car. The fact that she could save a significant portion on a monthly payment meant that she could feed my aunt and my uncle, and help get them off to school. And you can imagine what that must have felt like for her — she loses her husband and has to figure out how to map out her life. The fact that she had access to cooperative credit changed everything.
That happens every day. And we’ve grown to view that as transactional — and sure, it is — but for the people whose lives are changed, it’s not.