WASHINGTON — CUNA's Examination & Supervision Subcommittee recently established a Bank Secrecy Act Task Force to create a central location for submitting and analyzing BSA compliance and cost concerns and work toward solutions.

Harvard University Employees Credit Union President/CEO Eugene Foley is chairing the task force, which plans to hold its inaugural meeting shortly. "Compliance has been a competitive disadvantage, especially for smaller credit unions because the cost is just driving credit unions out of business," he explained.

Foley said he liked the idea of the risk-oriented focus as suggested recently by Treasury, but the devil will be in the details. "We're going to be taking a look at that. That might help us as long as it takes into account the risk assessment that the credit union has," he said. For example, a tightly knit church based credit union currently has the same BSA requirements as the largest banks.