America's Credit Unions is pushing back against a potential executive order that would require financial institutions to collect citizenship information from customers, warning the move could create significant operational and compliance challenges.
In a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the group said credit unions already meet federal identity verification requirements under the Bank Secrecy Act through Customer Identification Program (CIP) rules administered by FinCEN. Expanding those requirements to include citizenship data would add new burdens without clear benefits, the organization argued.
"Expanding these obligations … would impose additional operational, technological and member-service burdens on credit unions," wrote President/CEO Scott Simpson, noting smaller institutions would be disproportionately affected.
The group urged policymakers to pursue any changes through a formal rulemaking process rather than an executive order, allowing time for industry input and coordination with regulators such as the NCUA.
America's Credit Unions also called for any new requirements to apply only to future accounts, rather than retroactively to existing members, citing the logistical challenge of collecting data from millions of account holders.
Additionally, the organization requested a reasonable compliance timeline and a "good-faith" standard to protect institutions during implementation.
The letter emphasized the need to balance regulatory goals with maintaining efficient, accessible financial services for more than 145 million credit union members nationwide.
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