Leaders from the WorldCouncil of Credit Unions and the European Network of CreditUnions met with policymakers in Brussels this week to discusscritical regulatory issues, the organizations said.

Topics included draft directives concerning data protection, theproposed pan-European banking union, and deposit guarantee schemesunder consideration in the European Union.

“Everywhere credit unions are seeing increased regulatoryburden,” said Brian Branch, president/CEO of the World Council of CreditUnions in Madison, Wis. “While we believe strongly in rigorousprudential discipline and risk management, we need to constantlydialogue with policymakers to educate them about theproportionately high compliance cost of such rules for smaller andless risky credit unions.”

Branch joined the ENCU delegation in Brussels together withMichael Edwards, chief counsel and vice president for advocacy andgovernment affairs for the World Council.

The delegation met representatives from the European Commissionand the European Parliament's Civil Liberties, Justice and HomeAffairs Committee to discuss a new regulation that would helpharmonize data protection laws among the EU's 27 member states andwould require most organizations that deal with sensitive personaldata to appoint a data protection officer.

Small and medium businesses with fewer than 250 employees wouldbe excluded from the requirement unless they conducted regular andsystemic customer monitoring as part of their core business.

ENCU and World Council representatives sought clarification onthe regulation's application to credit unions and suggested ways toachieve the regulation's objectives without unreasonably burdeningcredit unions.

The group emphasized to policymakers that financial services,not managing personal data, are the core business of credit unions,the World Council said.

In anticipation of Ireland holding the presidency of the Councilof the European Union in January, ENCU delegates also met withMichael Taggart, financial services attaché, PermanentRepresentation of Ireland to the EU, to address proposed directivesthat would burden credit unions.

The presidency of the Council of the European Union rotatesamong the 27 member states every six months and is responsible forchairing and organizing meetings of the council and forfacilitating agreements and proposals that support the interests ofthe European Union.

The EU is considering expanding authority of the EuropeanCentral Bank and other EU banking supervision entities to superviseall EU banking institutions.

ENCU and World Council representatives advocated for local,national regulatory bodies to have day-to-day regulatory andexamination responsibility as well as to retain jurisdiction overcredit union business activities, corporate governance and relatedactivities.

ENCU delegates noted to Taggart that credit unions do notoperate on a cross-border basis, unlike commercial banks that arecertain to be subject to increased EU-level supervision.

The ENCU representatives also addressed with Taggart the EU'sforthcoming mortgage lending requirements, which would requiresignificant training of credit union personnel.

ENCU representatives stressed that credit unions not engaged inpurchase-money first mortgage lending – which includes most EUcredit unions – should be exempt from such requirements.