WICHITA, Kan. –Expected but still comforting, Kansas credit unions over the weekend heard directly from some of their most loyal lawmakers who came to their defense in the just concluded confrontation with the banking lobby over a "compromise" July 1 law restricting field of membership expansion.
Expressing disdain for what he said was a banker strategy to "simply restrict competition and harm consumers," Rep. S. Mike Kiegerl, an Olathe Republican, confessed to making "intemperate remarks" during hearings on the FOM/merger bill before the House Insurance and Financial Institutions Committee of which he is a member but maintained that banks "which nickel and dime consumers" with fees were successful in a CU juggernaut.
Kiegerl's remarks like those of four other House members drew a standing ovation from the crowd of 400 CU executives who attended the closing business session of the annual Kansas Credit Union Association conference here.
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Also touching on the FOM law was the state's top regulator, John Smith, administrator of the Department of Credit Unions, who urged laggard CUs to submit up-to-date records on branch operations in line with the new FOM law. Smith said the new law part of which takes effect Jan. 1, 2009, does put new burdens on the department "to memorialize" existing branch facilities as well as keep track of future sites.
Turning to the Treasury's "Blueprint" proposal for national agency reorganization, Smith echoed industry calls including those of NASCUS to reject the department's plan since it "effectively eliminates the credit union charter" but he added that while the report is now "on the shelf" those kinds of documents once issued have a way of resurfacing.
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