When it comes to new regulations, less is more.

That's the message CUNA President/CEO Bill Cheney conveyed to Richard Cordray, President Obama's nominee to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

He urged Cordray to “consider ways in which the bureau can help minimize regulatory requirements for credit unions and other financial institutions.”

Cordray, who has been running the new agency's enforcement division since January, was Ohio attorney general before losing in last fall's elections.

The Senate Banking Committee is scheduled to hold a confirmation hearing on his nomination next month. But Senate Republicans have vowed to block the nomination of any CFPB director unless there are changes made to the bureau's structure, including a five-member board to run it. 

The House passed legislation that would accomplish that but Senate Democrats and the Obama administration have opposed it.

In his letter to Cordray, Cheney also reiterated his suggestion that the bureau create an Office of Regulatory Burden Monitoring to help the agency track the impact of its regulations and try to “mitigate the cumulative regulatory burden” faced by credit unions and other small financial institutions.