TOPEKA, Kan. — With Kansas banks seeking to impose new field of membership limits, credit unions across the state were pumping up their lobbying activities last week to thwart banker-backed amendments to a CU-supported codification bill.

“Consumers should have the right to choose where they conduct their financial business,” declared the Kansas Credit Union Association in opposing FOM changes to its codification bill.

The latest attack on CU expansion began to surface in House and Senate committees in January and follows banker-backed hearings which started in 2006 to curb branch expansion by state CUs. The banking lobby has been urging lawmakers to restrict FOM growth according to strict federal guidelines.

If enacted with banker-added changes, CU operations would be needlessly and “negatively impacted,” warned the KCUA.

The KCUA maintains FOM laws have worked well for 60 years with no need to alter them.

“This is all a matter of credit unions trying to protect the rights of consumers,” said Haley DaVee, political affairs specialist for KCUA.

In defeating bank bills, KCUA officials said they were encouraged by support voiced by Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley (D-Topeka) who said, “I will do everything in my power to maintain the status quo,” referring to a rival bill introduced by the Kansas Bankers Association.

Late last month under guidance of KCUA, CU members joined by 18,069 Kansas consumers presented a petition to legislators “to protect their credit union.”

Two years ago, the Kansas CU industry faced formidable opposition from the current chair of the Senate Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee Ruth Teichman, a Stafford banker. Teichman, a Republican who is from a well-connected banking family, had suggested more study was needed to determine “whether credit unions have grown beyond their original mission.”

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