Briefs: Carnell decrees, Maleny MCU votes 30 April 2019 3:59PM Banking Day staff Briefs, Authorised deposit-taking institutions, Credit Union, Finance regulation, Fintech, Major Banks, MCU, Mutual bank, Ombudsman services The Australian Taxation Office copped a hiding yesterday from Kate Carnell, the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman, over its debt collection practices. Carnell found that "ATO garnishee notices were issued in a sizeable number of cases where tax disputes were before Administrative Appeals Tribunal. We found ATO debt recovery action occurred in at least 12 per cent of cases before the AAT, severely impacting a small business's resources to prosecute its case and carry on its business," Carnell said. She chastised the ATO over the "asymmetry in power between this large and powerful organisation and the small business sector [which] has left these particular small businesses in a vulnerable position and with diminished access to justice". A rare demutualisation of a community credit union will be confirmed tonight at two meetings of members of MCU Ltd in Maleny, the home of a resilient hub of the counter-culture in Queensland's Glasshouse mountains. Firstmac, one of Australia's most successful and largest non-bank mortgage funders, is counting on carrying on the business of MCU as a newly-fledged neobank. As of this morning APRA is keeping its decision on any banking licence for Firstmac to itself. A scheme meeting will commence at 5:30pm, Brisbane time, in the town's Community Centre. The demutualisation meeting "will commence immediately following the conclusion of the Scheme Meeting." Followed by a wake.