Seize the day.   Now is the time for credit unions to step into the void caused by the bank meltdowns and provide loans to consumers and small businesses.  We know that over regulation is coming in response to the economic crisis, the type of regulation called for the recent Treasury Report where there are super regulators of all sorts of financial institutions; from banks, to broker/dealers to credit unions.  Credit unions run the risk of being swept up in the currents and their identities lost.  If credit unions can be seen as the one type of financial institution that continued to perform without government bailout, the value of the non-profit cooperative financial sector will be a shield against being lost in a regulatory avalanche.   We have to make a case that credit unions are worthy to be preserved as a separate and distinct financial institution alternative.  The lack of quarterly earning pressures and stock earnings insulates credit unions from the greed factor.  If we don’t make the case now for the value of credit unions, we never will.