LAS VEGAS-Regulation of credit unions is a "work in progress," but Alan Cameron said the real downside is compliance takes away from the focus of serving members.
Cameron, the president of the Idaho CU League, said the crush of added rules in recent months also hurts credit unions by making it more difficult for them to attract new board members.
"Knowing they have to learn all of these new regulations makes people hesitate," he warned.
Two solutions Cameron offered during a panel discussion at the 1 Credit Union Conference hosted by CUNA and WOCCU here: each CU should establish a compliance program and should further make compliance part of staff job descriptions.
Cameron was joined on the panel by Donna Chardeen, director of compliance and fraud mitigation for SEFCU, Albany, N.Y., and Kathy Thompson, SVP for compliance and legislation for CUNA.
"Everybody is responsible for compliance," said Chardeen.
Thompson said CUNA still is evaluating the effect of the pending restrictions on overdraft protection programs given the presumptive passage of the bank reform bill and with it the Durbin interchange amendment. However, because the opt-in percentage among members has been "robust," the negative impact might not be as great as feared, she said.
