Verbatim

“Credit Unions Continue to Push for Expansion,” recently appeared on the Oklahoma Bankers Association Web site (www.oba.com). It was written by the group’s President/CEO Roger Beverage and is reprinted below in its entirety with permission from the OBA.

The credit union industry is determined to “do something” in the 110th Congress to expand their ability to serve virtually anyone, anywhere, and to further expand their ability to offer commercial lending services to their customers. Every time they do so, they do so at bankers’ expense.

We’re told that a “deal” is being discussed in Washington whereby credit unions will be able to expand into “underserved areas”, but that the term will also be more narrowly defined. In exchange for banker agreement on that expansion, bankers will receive some red tape relief, most notably in the area of filing Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) for certain customers with whom the bank has an established relationship.