Gingrich and Leach encourage NAFCU to push for an easing of regulation.

WASHINGTON -- Regulatory relief topped the agenda for the National Association of Federal Credit Unions board in a meeting here.

The trade group was encouraged by leading lawmakers to push for legislation attacking burdensome requirements. And the association's 12 directors urged the Federal Reserve Board to weigh the impact of its regulations on credit unions before approving them.

"It was a busy couple of days," Ken Robinson, president of NAFCU, said of the session, which was held last week.

Future House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., and House Banking Committee Chairman Jim Leach, R-Iowa, both told association representatives that the 104th Congress would be receptive to their calls to ease regulations, Mr. Robinson said.

"Our meetings with Newt Gingrich and Jim Leach were more than we had expected," Mr. Robinson said. He and NAFCU chairman David Miller met with the lawmakers.

The Arlington, Va.-based trade group is preparing a legislative package to tackle what it sees as unnecessary regulation, Mr. Robinson said. He didn't give specifics of the plan, but said it would seek to revise some Fed regulations.

Rep. Gingrich, who has sided with the industry by opposing a proposed merger of the National Credit Union Administration into a superregulator, also had encouraging words on another perennial issue: taxation of credit unions.

"It's not going to happen," Rep. Gingrich said, according to a news release from NAFCU. "I'm deadly opposed to it."

During its third annual meeting with the Fed board, the NAFCU board urged the regulator to recognize differences between banks and credit unions when drafting regulations.

"They're concentrating on banks, so we just said don't give us a regulation that looks great on banks but is terrible on credit unions," said Ron Snellings, president of Pentagon Federal Credit Union and a NAFCU director.

For example, the credit union officials said that some Truth-in-Lending notification requirements were overly burdensome -- particularly for small credit unions -- and should be changed.

Mr. Miller, who also is president of Kalamazoo (Mich.) District Bell Federal Credit Union, said he was pleased with the visits, but added that credit unions must remain vigilant against threats.

"It was real scary because everyone we talked to had nothing but good things to say about credit unions," Mr. Miller said. "That's when you get hit with something, when you get complacent."

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