Just ask the marketing staff at the $600 million Vermont State Employees Credit Union about the fallout from the state regulator’s cease and desist order for using banking in its advertising, and they'll tell you, “We couldn’t have planned this any better—it’s made my job so much easier.”
Yvonne Garand, vice president of marketing/business development, said Friday that while her credit union faces the prospect of a cease and desist from the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation, it is reaping favorable public response from the challenge.
- UPDATE, Oct. 8, 2012, Vermont Credit Union, Regulator Settle 'B' Word Dispute
“We’re getting encouraging emails and calls from across Vermont and elsewhere, and they’re mad,” Garand said, explaining they find the ruling “just plain stupid and absolutely ludicrous.”
Garand said she is currently working on an op-ed for a Montpelier paper, and her credit union issued an email blast to members today explaining the controversy and urging they contact the DFR to halt the cease and desist proceedings.
Local TV news crews were slated to interview Steven D. Post, the president/CEO today for statewide coverage, she said.
“The fact is the commissioner could halt this silliness with an order on his own,” said Garand. “He has the power to interpret the statute and simply say that our credit union is not in violation, but he refuses to do so.”
The Vermont commmissioner of banking, insurance, securities and health care is Steve Kimbell, an attorney and former state planning director who previously served at KSE Partners, a Montpelier and Washington lobbying firm. The June 18 notice of the intent for a VSECU cease and desist was drafted by the deputy commissioner, Thomas Candon, a veteran in the agency and a former banker who has said he expects to hold a hearing on the case late next month.
