BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The restrictive Kansas field of membership bill--likely to become law within days--presents an array of prickly problems for regulators and their credit unions but any national spillover from new population thresholds contained in the legislation remains uncertain, a partner for Dollar Associates said Monday.

In commenting on the anti-CU Kansas bill drawing national scrutiny, Kirk Cuevas, a lead CU consultant in the Birmingham firm and a former NCUA chief staff counsel, forecast state regulators would be "scratching their heads" in trying to apply rules to accommodate shifting population limits in MSAs in contrast to the federal "well defined community" language.

Stressing he was not privy to the legislative process in enacting the Kansas bill now before Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, Cuevas faulted some of the bill's language as "as a recipe for banker mischief."

In particular, he cited lengthy notice and comment rules for branch and merger applications following along bank regulatory lines. "That could be acrimonious and litigious," predicted Cuevas, whose boss at NCUA is his partner in the firm here, former NCUA Chairman Dennis Dollar.