Reaction was lukewarm to a bill introduced Thursday in theSenate that would reduce the number of credit unions directly supervised by the CFPB. The bill,introduced by Sens. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.),would increase the minimum asset size of institutions under theCFPB's supervision to $50 billion.

Jim Blaine, CEO of the $28 billion State Employees' Credit Unionin Raleigh, N.C., joked that a $500 billion threshold would be muchbetter.

But the outspoken CEO, who has had his well-publicized differences with the NCUA, said he prefers theCFPB.

“We are happy with the sophistication level at the CFPB and itmight be wise to transition all $10 billion-plus credit unions fromNCUA to CFPB or FDIC/OCC over time,” Blaine said.

BillCheney, president/CEO of the $10 billion SchoolsFirst FCU, said hiscooperative just reached the minimum asset size earlier this year,so it won't host CFPB examiners in its Santa Ana, Calif.,headquarters until next year.

Cheney said he supports the legislation but added if it passedthat would leave just one credit union directly supervised by theCFPB, the $60 billion Navy FCU, which he said doesn't makesense.

“Credit unions were not a part of the problem the CFPB wascreated to fix, and I wish instead they'd just say the CFPB isn'tgoing to supervise any credit unions at all,” Cheney said.

SchoolsFirst has nothing to fear from CFPB exams, he said, butan additional regulator will mean additional expenses that won't bespent on members.

Cheney, the former CUNA president/CEO who just relocated fromWashington to California in June to take the SchoolsFirst job, wasnot optimistic the bill would pass both the Senate and the House inthe waning days of the 113^th Congress.

Many sponsors of legislation say they have broad bipartisansupport, he said, but haven't been able to get even bills that lackcontroversy through Congress. For example, Cheney said, thePrivacy Notice Modernization Act, which has 71 bipartisancosponsors in the Senate and passed the House unanimously, can'tseem to gain traction. That bill would amend the Gramm-Leach-BlileyAct, exempting institutions that do not publicly share customerinformation from delivering annual privacy notices unless there hasbeen a change to the privacy policy.

NAFCU Director of Legislative Affairs Jillian Pevo sharedCheney's position that all credit unions should share the sameregulator.

“We appreciate the leadership of Senators Toomey and Donnellyfor introducing the Consumer Financial Protection BureauExamination and Reporting Threshold Act of 2014,” shesaid. “This is a great step forward for credit unions, thoughwe would prefer to see all credit unions exempted from CFPBsupervision and we will keep working toward that.”

She added that NAFCU was the only financial trade group thatopposed allowing the CFPB to supervise any credit unions when thecreation of the bureau was originally proposed.

John Magill, EVP of government relations at CUNA, thanked Toomeyand Donnelly for introducing the bill and considering credit unionneeds before the Senate leaves for its five-week district workperiod. However, Magill said, more could be done.

“While this bill is a welcome development, CUNA continues tourge the CFPB to use its broad exemption authority for creditunions more extensively, as we strongly believe there is more CFPBcan and should do on its own to exempt credit unions fromunnecessary regulations,” he said.