BEAVERTON, Ore. — The recently concluded session of the Oregon legislature provided key victories for credit unions including the right to handle an array of nonmember products, accept homeowner and condo deposits, plus new oversight on financial literacy.
"We're quite pleased at the results this year despite opposition on at least two of the bills from banks," said Pamela Leavitt, senior vice president of government affairs for the Credit Union Association of Oregon.
In enacting the bills Oregon lawmakers overrode objections from the banking lobby on a key so-called "clean-up" measure providing federal parity to permit CUs to accept nonmember deposits for money orders, travelers and cashier's checks. That law becomes effective Jan. 1, 2008.
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A separate bill awaiting the signature of Gov. Ted Kolongoski would for the first time set up a task force on civics and financial education. The task force would be required to report back to the legislature in 2008 on changes in financial curriculum in pubic schools.
Credit unions had long been concerned about the lack of a financial education focus in the schools after the topic was dropped back in the 1980s. The CUAO had sought unsuccessfully to push the Oregon Superintendent of Public Instruction to restore financial literacy, but
it had been pushed to a back burner.
The new law adds clout to literacy education since the task force includes top leaders in the Oregon legislature, said the CUAO.
The new law on homeowner/condo association deposits drew banker opposition since the banking lobby argued it was not meant to open this market to CUs but to an out of state bank. At the urging of CUAO, lawmakers had included language that expanded the powers to all regulated financial institutions
"The 2007 Legislative Session proved to be one of the busiest for credit unions," said Leavitt in a CUAO news release. "Besides moving our priority legislation through both the House and Senate, we were asked to serve on work groups for major bills on identity theft, predatory lending, and consumer lending."
Leavitt noted that with Democrats controlling both the House and Senate for the first time in several years, "consumer issues and the priorities for consumer advocacy groups were deemed priorities for the leadership."
Among its provisions, the "clean-up" law eliminates a branch application fee and gives the state CU regulator more flexibility to establish fees, said the CUAO.
In addition the law provides federal parity in several areas including low-income charter designations, said the CUAO.
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