TOPEKA, Kan.–Amidst a round of committee hearings and facing a March 1 cutoff, a panel of the Kansas Senate is slated Friday to consider once again a banker-backed bill to impose field of membership restrictions on credit unions.
The latest maneuver by the banking lobby to curb field of membership growth was being roundly blasted by the Kansas Credit Union Association as "more of the same" attacks on consumer choice as bankers try to block expanded CU branching.
A bill drafted by the Kansas Bankers Association, which is being heard by a subcommittee of the Senate Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee, would subject CUs to federal FOM statutes and create banker-type regulation on branch openings and mergers.
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"Here we again have another blatant case of bankers trying to write laws that regulate credit unions and even asking us to sit down at the table and negotiate, something we're not about to do," said Jerel Wright, KCUA assistant vice president and head of governmental and political affairs.
Kansas banks have been working feverishly in recent weeks to keep their anti-CU bill alive before a March 1 deadline on bills moving out of committee.
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