FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla.–Few audiences within credit unions are more aware of the regulations coming out of Washington than lending officers.
During the CUNA Lending Council meeting here CUNA CEO Jim Nussle pointed to the 6,000 pages of regulations that have been issued since the Great Recession and said, “We are no longer serving our members. We are serving a bureaucracy in Washington. That is not the reason anyone got into credit unions. Serving paperwork and regulations just doesn’t make sense. It’s hurting credit unions. We’re losing one a day since the downturn in the economy.”
Nussle told the meeting the best thing CUs and their associations can do is attack such regulation, but “whining” is not an effective strategy. He noted CUNA will release shortly an analysis that monetizes the cost of regulation that in turn can be used in meetings with elected officials and regulators.
Speaking to how to measure the success of such advocacy, Nussle said, “Rose Garden ceremonies are nice, but they are fleeting. To me winning is growing. That’s the ultimate goal. Regulatory burden and all these other issues are holding us back from growth. “
Nussle urged the CU lenders to recognize that while the dysfunction in Washington has muted any threat to the CU tax exemption, bank groups are borrowing a page from the marriage equality and marijuana lobbies and attacking the issue at the state level. He noted South Dakota, Illinois, Oregon, Washington and New Mexico’s legislatures have all seen discussion of the CU tax status.
“We think in next year there is going to be one in Iowa. What are they doing? They are looking for the weakest link. While we are watching in Washington they are attacking at the state level. So we could lose it from the ground up.”