BRUSSELS–The European Parliament Credit Union Interest Group met here with the European Network of Credit Unions to hold a Round Table Discussion on the Banking Reform Package and Exempted entities and ways to provide regulatory relief for credit unions.
Credit unions currently operate in a number of European countries, including the Republic of Ireland, Estonia, Romania, Poland, the United Kingdom and Macedonia, The World Council reported. Those CUs contribute to the European social economy by supporting thousands of communities and more than seven-million European households with financial services.
The Interest Group, a caucus for members of the European Parliament (MEP) who support credit unions, held the meeting at the European Parliament's Espace Leopold building in Brussels. MEP Marian Harkin of the Republic of Ireland), who is Co-Chair of the Interest Group, MEP Paul Tang of the Netherlands, who is Vice-Chair of the Interest Group, and MEP Sven Giegold, a member of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON) engaged European Commission representatives and European Network of Credit Unions members on the challenges credit unions face and ways to reform regulations that can reduce unnecessary regulatory burden to support increased credit union activities in the European Union, according to WOCCU.
“We need to preserve the business model of smaller, low-risk actors such as good credit unions, which play a useful role for the stability of the European banking sector,” said Giegold. “Financial regulation must not overburden small banks with administrative requirements but needs to properly address the risks posed by systemic institutions.”
Representatives of the Irish League of Credit Unions (ILCU), the National Association of Co-operative Savings and Credit Unions (NACSCU) of Poland, the Estonian Union of Credit Cooperatives (EUCC), and World Council of Credit Unions also shared their views with MEPs on how European Union policy can provide regulatory relief for credit unions.