An overwhelming majority of credit unions surveyed by NAFCU expect their compliance costs to increase in 2010.
NAFCU's Flash Report reported that 83.6% of respondents said their compliance costs will probably go up, while 16.4% predicted they would stay the same. No respondents predicted a decline in compliance costs.
Credit unions that responded reported that 9% of their staff's time was spent on compliance issues. Of those, 71.2% said the amount of staff time devoted to compliance increased from 2008 to 2009, while 28.8% didn't see a significant change.
The credit unions also predicted that the regulation requiring opt in on overdraft programs for debit card withdrawals at ATM-which takes effect on July 1-will impact 34.6% of their overdraft fees and 17.7% of their noninterest income.
Only 16.7% of respondents said they switched their credit cards from fixed to variable rates as a result of the provisions of the CARD Act, which took effect on Feb. 22.
--cmarx@cutimes.co
