At press time, the Senate was putting the final touches on the bill to change the way financial services are regulated.

Lawmakers were wrangling mostly on issues that were not directly relevant to credit unions-such as the regulation of derivatives-and that was preventing the resolution of other parts of the bill.

CUNA and NAFCU were waiting to find out if lawmakers will change a provision in the bill that they say would prevent unions from offering wire transfer services. The associations say that it would hurt U.S.-based financial institutions because it would classify certain transfer services-such as Fedwire and ACH-as remittance services and make institutions that provide them liable for disclosing all costs up front. The trades, and their allies in the banking community, maintain that because credit unions don't control the entire transaction process, they may not know the total transaction costs at the time the member initiates the transaction.