On July 23rd the Georgia Credit Union State Law Review Task Force met with the Department of Banking and Finance to identify and analyze additional potential changes to credit union law and regulation, and assess the legislative temperament in the year ahead. This Task Force was organized to help pursue improvements to ensure a strong state charter option, remove compliance burdens, and be engaged with the Department in a proactive, meaningful way to grow understanding on both sides of the table. And while this Task Force tackled several positive charter enhancement issues that were able to pass into law to make the operational environment competitive for credit unions over the past two years, it is important to continually look for ways to improve so as to have a strong charter option in Georgia.
Comprising credit unions from around the state, this meeting was the opportunity for dialogue to discuss ideas, insight and traction for progressive changes, and look for avenues to advance the state charter now and in the future. Topics addressed in the meeting with the Department ranged from lending limit issues, low income credit union designation, various operational constraints and the factors that surround them, ensuring loans to other institutions are permissible, and an examination of some of the laws/regulations in other states to determine if and how to incorporate into Georgia law, while protecting the flexibility in the credit union law today.
This year has an interesting wrinkle in terms of any legislation, and that is the pending change in Governor! Regardless of who wins that election in November, one thing is a given – that it is unclear how the new state leadership will want to address legislation from agencies that fall under their purview, which includes the Department of Banking and Finance. But regardless, work continues and next steps are to finalize language for potential changes to the Department for their consideration, and potentially incorporate positive changes into legislation (if pursued). This is the third year of this formal task force, which has the mindset not of creating new regulation or law for the sake of it, but rather promoting enhancements to credit union law and/or regulation that could be beneficial to the industry and the members it serves. Our sincere gratitude to the credit unions on the Task Force, and to the Department for the open dialogue and desire for credit unions to be an active part of the process.
