TUCSON, Ariz. - A proposal put forward by NCUA Board member Yolanda Wheat to add Community Reinvestment Act-like rules on community chartered credit unions is unnecessary and deserves to be opposed by the industry, CUNA President Dan Mica has told Arizona CU executives. "There is no data that says we need this," said Mica arguing that CUs are already doing their job in reaching out to low income segments, a fact that is well documented, he averred. Mica spoke to the annual convention of the Arizona Credit Union System here. The amount of needless paperwork resulting from the Wheat "community action plan", he said, would create a huge burden for CUs and would be punitive on community chartered CUs. The Wheat "CAP" proposal was unveiled last month in a regulatory package implementing field-of-membership rules, of which the CRA-like plan if adopted would take effect Dec. 31, 2001. Under the proposal, federal community CUs would be required to develop a separate CAP for marketing their services to the entire community they serve, including underserved or low-income areas. In his remarks, the CUNA president urged CU executives to contact him or CUNA offices in Washington "to let us know if you think we are off base" on this issue. He warned that if community charters are subject to the some such CRA rules, the concept could soon be applied to all credit unions as they embark on SEG expansion. Mica noted that the Wheat plan was given wide media coverage and the worst elements were highlighted, and yet it is a concept that is "hard to approve" for CUNA. In related news, CUNA issued a "Call to Action" June 22 urging all credit unions-not only federal community-chartered CUs which are directly affected by the proposed regulation- who are opposed to Wheat's proposal to "speak out," and CUNA is providing CUs with the tools they can use to convey their views to NCUA. Among the tools the association has put together is a list of key point about the proposal for CUs to consider when developing their comments for the NCUA Board; a "Take Action Now" page on the CUNA Web site credit unions can use to compose their comments on the Web site and send them directly to the NCUA Board; provided the NCUA Board with contact information for credit unions. -
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