Special Committee on Financial Institutions
and Insurance
Credit union field of membership expansion in Kansas is clearly under attack. In room 509 South of the Capitol, on October 17th and 18th a nine member committee of legislators heard from proponents of change, such as bankers, their lobbyists and trade associations, and opponents of change including credit union members, trade associations and managers.
The proponents of change would like to prohibit Kansas Department of Credit Unions Administrators from granting large fields of memberships.
The point that the proponents of change tried to make was that credit union administrators illegally permitted credit unions to stray from their origins (circa 1935) by allowing them to reach out to large fields of membership. Several credit union administrators, who were appointed by different Kansas governors, have granted large fields of membership or membership expansions over the years. Some were even granted when credit unions were supervised by the Kansas Bank Commissioner (pre-1968).
As you might expect, those credit unions in Kansas with larger fields of membership tend to be larger than those that have not expanded their field of membership. On the other hand, many that have retained a limited field of membership have struggled, are struggling or worse yet, have simply gone away. The bankers seem to be okay with that. They just do not like the activities of larger “monolithic” (their term) credit unions.
Many industries have been forced to adapt to change over time, especially the past couple of decades, in order to remain viable. Have banks expanded and changed?
The Committee members deserve a lot of credit. It is a tremendous responsibility to sit on such a committee. They were tasked with the challenge of sorting through pounds of written testimony and data while listening to many hours of oral testimony about decades of trends, activities and opinions. They must feel like they are drinking from a fire hose.
On December 4, 2007 the Committee will reconvene to talk about what they heard and read. We will let you know what they say.
Gary Regoli
Chief Executive Officer
gregoli@bwcu.org
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