Led by the national credit union trade groups, state tradeassociations began planning this week to enhance their onlineinformation programs to help educate credit unions and plot impactstrategies in connection with the Federal Reserve's new debitinterchange rule.

NAFCU said next Wednesday it will conduct a “Living with theFed's New Interchange Rule” webinar while CUNA said it has a“podcast in the works” perhaps early in the week covering thetopic.

The Pennsylvania Credit Union Association said it is “is in theearly stages of planning a webinar to discuss” the Fed's 21 centscap which takes effect Oct. 1.

The Texas Credit Union League said it is hosting an “executivebriefing” next Tuesday on the Fed rule “tailored towardunderstanding the exemption, how the rule will impact institutionsunder $10 billion and where the opportunity is in thisenvironment.”

Texas CUs need to know “the insights as to how the playing fieldhas changed and how to best plan their next move,” said theleague

The Michigan Credit Union League, issuing special “MonitorExtra” emails, said that “moving forward, we're hopeful the smallissuer exemption will hold up and give our members an advantage inthe marketplace.”

In promoting the webinar, NAFCU CEO Fred Becker cautioned againthat CUs need to “have plans in place” for the income reductiontriggered by the new Fed rules and to develop firm strategies formaking up lost interchange income including cost cutting, bundlingand repricing.