COLUMBUS, Ohio—State chartered CUs in Ohio received some encouraging words from their state regulator regarding field of membership expansion.
The comments, made by Rob Rutkowski, deputy superintendent for credit unions at the Ohio Division of Financial Institutions during the Ohio CU League’s InVest48 annual meeting here, come at a time when many federally charted CUs are mulling state charters due to the more restrictive federal rules.
“Field of membership is of central importance to Ohio credit unions, said Rutkowski. “To this end, again, we do not make the rules but we promise to fairly evaluate all requests for expansion of field of membership. We promise to fairly evaluate all requests you make of us. We are here to serve you. I can promise you that we are not going to go looking for more work for you. You have enough to do in facing the enormous regulatory burdens placed upon you by the federal government.”
Rutkowski also agreed that credit unions need fewer rules and more regulatory attention to preventing fraud.
“There are so many issues facing credit unions today. I am inspired by NCUA board member Mark McWatters when he recently said, ‘I question why more energy and supervisory effort are not focused on preventing fraud, rather than directed to more, and often onerous new rules and regulations for credit unions to follow. NCUA must take a more thoughtful and diligent approach to combating fraud and inadequate internal control systems at credit unions.’ I could not agree more.”
Rutkowski said combatting fraud is a priority for the ODFI. “While we will insist that credit unions follow compliance rules and while we cannot change Ohio law governing credit unions, we can certainly make fraud prevention a key point of focus.”
Rutkowski closed by saying that credit union/regulator communication has to be good.
“An examiner is a special kind of person. Each examiner must be able to look at a credit union’s strengths and weaknesses and then communicate effectively to the credit union’s board and CEO.”
Emphasizing again that communication between the regulator and regulated is critical, Rutkowski brought with him to the meeting the entire CU ODFI staff—more than ten employees—and asked them to stand.
“This is your team,” Rutkowski said.