Over the last month we have all heard much on the radio and television about the banks attacking the credit unions again. The problem with these ads is the banks haven’t been attacking but the League of Credit Unions have been fighting against a House resolution that deals with financial institutions.

During 2003 and 2004 I had the opportunity to co-chair the Financial Institutions task force. This was a committee comprised of legislators from both the House and the Senate. Our assignment was to study the issue that was brought to the front by legislation in the 2003 session. At that time a category of non-exempt status was created for credit unions that had grown outside the fields of membership of affinity and bond. Before the task force could even meet the National Credit Union Association (NCUA) approved applications for Utah credit unions that allowed them to move to the federal charter and expand their memberships to six counties. This is significant because the focus of the task force changed from taxes to fields of membership as the League of Credit Unions asked the task force to follow the NCUA and change the state charter to match the federal.

HJR1 is the outgrowth of that study. As a legislature we feel we need to create a credit union charter that is competitive with the federal charter. We can’t do that when the federal charter continues to change. Many of us felt that the NCUA had gone too far. In December 2004 a judge ruled that the NCUA needed to go back and justify why they opened the fields of membership so wide. This justified our concern.

By passing HJR1 we will be asking Congress to give us direction. We want to know if they agree with the NCUA or not. With this information we can move forward and restructure our state charter if it is then necessary.

Many have said that this is just the banks against the credit unions, again. This resolution was written by the chairs of the task force and approved by the task force. It was presented in two task force meetings and another legislative public meeting and in those meetings public input was allowed. The resolution does not raise taxes.

If you are interested please take the time to read the resolution