We can all breathe a sigh of relief that the elections are finally over. The campaign sniping on the television and the intrusive robo-calling is done. Now, we have to get down to what it all means for credit unions.

The Massachusetts Credit Union League made the somewhat controversial choice of backing Elizabeth Warren, mother of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, in her successful campaign for the Senate. Not only did she win, but she also highlighted her support of credit unions during her acceptance speech. She included her “love” for credit unions among a list of key supporters, adding, “All of you have my back, and I promise you, I’ll have your back.”

How that translates into action will be interesting to say the least. I have no doubt she sees credit unions in her state as strong allies and the good guys that got caught up in the fixes created for the less-than-savory dealings of the larger, more aggressive financial services providers. However, her long and significant background indicates her strong support of consumer protectionism above all else. Yes, credit unions are for the consumer, but there are a laundry list of unintended consequences stemming from legislation and regulatory implementation. For example, while credit unions in general are not a systemic threat to the American financial system, they are caught up in Dodd-Frank requirements and CFPB’s codifying regulations that only further add to the burden of doing business as a financial institution. The mortgage servicing and wire transfer rules are prime examples, just to name a couple. On the APR piece of the mortgage servicing reg, credit unions are particularly stifled because of their statutory interest rate cap. On top of that, there are the costs of retraining staff, reprinting documentation, and–above all–retraining consumers on how to look at it. This regulatory change will create greater consumer confusion rather than clarity. The regulators often don’t recognize this last part because they are not the ones facing the consumers every day and tasked with explaining that the credit union didn’t change its rates, but Washington changed the way they are calculated.