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From: Ron Eyre, ABA Chairman
David Brown, UMA Chairman
Doug Anderson, ABA Vice Chairman
Brian Scott, UMA Vice Chairman

Subj: Joint Statement on ABA-UMA Unification

Earlier this year, you gave us your approval to move forward with the unification of our two organizations. Since that time, you have been very supportive as we have attempted to bring our organizations closer together. This transition period has afforded us an opportunity to carefully analyze our staff, our business models, our leadership approach and our basic philosophies on serving our members' needs.

However, we regret to have to say that we have reached an impasse in the transition process and, have agreed to end the unification effort.

Our organizations share much in common: decades of service to the industry and substantial respective strengths.

This does not mean that you will not benefit from the work that has been done to date. It has become very clear to us, for example, that your desire for us to speak with one voice is an industry imperative for strength. Toward that end, UMA and ABA will continue to cooperate on future legislative and regulatory efforts by ensuring that our respective government affairs and legislative committees meet during the year and help to deliver a united message to Congress and to policy makers.

We want to thank you for your support. Though we did not complete the task we set out to do, we believe much is to be gained from the process that we have begun of working closer together. And we would like to thank all the members of the Unification Task Force and the Transition Team for their hard work over the past months.