Michigan Regulator Backs CU Reform

The Office of Financial and Insurance Services, the state's chief financial regulator, said it is fully behind efforts by credit unions to amend the state's credit union statute, now pending before the legislature.

"We testified in favor of it before the Senate and we will again, if asked to, when it gets to the House," Roger Little, deputy commissioner of the Michigan CU Division, told The Credit Union Journal, during the annual NASCUS convention here.

The bill is expected to be voted on by the full Senate later this month, before going over to the House for its consideration, according to Little. The measure would allow state-chartered credit unions to decide fields of membership for themselves, allow credit unions to provide check cashing and wire transfers to non-members within their FOMs, provide secondary capital accounts, increase permissible investment limits in CUSOs, and modernize allowance for electronic voting and board governance, among other things.