WASHINGTON — Should changes within an SEC's consumer privacyregulation come to fruition, they could negatively affect brokeragebusiness at credit unions and banks, said the Credit UnionFinancial Network, an investment services CUSO.

The regulation in question is Regulation S-P: Privacy ofConsumer Financial Information and Safeguarding PersonalInformation. At issue is the protocol when a registeredrepresentative leaves one brokerage firm for another. Therepresentative is referred the bulk of their business by the bankand credit union and such information is often treated as tradesecrets with the representative acknowledging that therepresentative does not own the book of business, he said.

In a May 7 SEC comment letter, Michael Prior, president of CUFN,asked SEC to consider the different broker-dealer models. CUFNprovides investment and trust services to several Arizona creditunions.