Indiana's Privately Insured CUs to Receive Disclosure Review

DUBLIN, Ohio-American Share Insurance and others have set up a meeting in Indiana to review privately insured credit unions’ disclosure requirements under the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Improvement Act of 1991. ASI, the Indiana Credit Union League and the Indiana Department of Financial Institutions have scheduled a meeting for Nov. 3, 2003 at 10am to go over what disclosures are required in privately insured credit unions’ advertising, which should take a couple of hours, ASI Vice President of Marketing Nick Damopoulos explained. Indiana represents 9% (21) of ASI-insured credit unions. “This is something that we’re doing with all of our privately insured credit unions,” he said. An informational session is tentatively scheduled in Ohio for Nov. 12, Damopoulos said. Interested credit unions can contact the league at (800) 285-5300. The educational sessions on the 12-year old law stemmed from a General Accounting Office study released in August that revealed that 21 of 57 privately insured credit unions (37%) in Alabama, California, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio did not have required notices posted. When FDICIA was passed, Congress charged the Federal Trade Commission with enforcing the law, but did not provide funding. The agency had successfully argued that they did not have the manpower or expertise to handle it, arguments that they repeated in the recent GAO study. However, GAO still reasoned that the FTC would be the best regulator to enforce the law. In addition to the five states in the study, Maryland, Nevada, and Idaho also have privately insured credit unions. While private insurance is authorized in Washington State, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New Hampshire, and Colorado, there are no privately insured credit unions in those states.