SALT LAKE CITY — Stymied for years by restrictive state law, the Utah League of Credit Unions is now looking at a ballot initiative perhaps this fall to provide relief on business loans and expansion, according to Scott Simpson, president/CEO.
Such a public referendum might also contain consumer-friendly provisions putting caps on return check fees, ATM surcharges, and payday loan interest rates.
Simpson stressed the concept of a ballot referendum is still in the talking stages and "speculative."
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"The election this fall is an option but it is bit premature to speculate whether we're at that point," said Simpson who over the weekend told the Salt Lake Tribune that Utah CUs find themselves strait-jacketed by banker-adopted laws that severely inhibit growth.
A league nemesis, Howard Headlee, president/CEO of the Utah Bankers Association reacting to the news account and making apparent reference to a banker argument that changing the law hurts school funding, told Credit Union Times," If you were to learn one thing from the most recent public referendum, it is that Utahans are passionate about education. I find it highly unlikely that they would support an initiative that would divert school funds to subsidize larger and larger business loans."
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