TOPEKA, Kan. — Apparently on a fast track and with banker-backing, the Kansas field of membership bill, which would impose limits on statewide branching, passed the state Senate 35-2 Wednesday.
The bill was assigned to the House Insurance and Financial Institutions Committee for hearings early next week.
"As far as we're concerned, a deal is a deal," said Douglas Wareham, senior vice president of government relations for the Kansas Bankers Association, in describing a compromise pact on wording in the bill as agreed to by KBA and the Kansas Credit Union Association.
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Taking note of the tough bank/CU wrangling over the bill in Senate committees,the leadership of the KCUA has said it neither opposes not supports the reworked Senate FOM bill which directly impacts nine CUs primarily in Topeka and Wichita and also in Hutchinson and Garden City.
A key provision in the bill imposes 1 million population limits for future statewide branch expansion on certain CUs but allows others to continue as is within existing MSA districts.
"Based on the margin in the Senate, I think that tells you the views of lawmakers in both the House and Senate that they look at this as a working agreement between banks and credit unions," said Wareham.
On the Senate side, the bill was strongly pushed by the chairman of the Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee, Ruth Teichman, a Stafford banker, who has long complained about large CUs "growing beyond their original mission" and the need to be reined in.
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