On March 21st the credit union priority bill, H.B. 780 by Rep. Bruce Williamson (R-Monroe), took another positive step forward! This bill will enact positive changes for the industry and represents almost a year’s worth of work by the Department of Banking and Finance (DBF) and others, including the credit union charter review task force that met back in July 2017 and 2016. This task force was created specifically to generate ideas for potential improvements to credit union law, and the multiple credit union charter enhancements in this bill include:
- Expanding the section of law that protects the use of the words “credit union” to also include the name of a subsidiary of the credit union,
- Creating a process in law for state-chartered credit unions to utilize a federal power offered by the Federal Credit Union Act or NCUA that is presently in effect,
- Strengthening the liability language of directors to ensure that the director oath does not modify the standard of care or legal duties, or create a loophole where directors could be sued under a different standard,
- Outlining in law the ability to protect the ability of credit unions to hold, purchase or fund life insurance plans on any of the directors, officers, employees or others deemed as such that their death would cause a financial loss to the credit union,
- Placing protections in law for credit union director emeritus positions to ensure that they are not subject to liability standards for directors, and outlining in law the ability to create these roles, and
- Removing regulatory burdens for credit unions by eliminating the current requirement in law that all loans to employees of the credit union must be reported to the board of directors (the requirement would still hold for officers, directors, and committee members).
GCUA and others have been heavily engaged in the past two weeks to secure positive passage of the bill, answer questions and calm some concerns of other interest groups. The bill must now go back to the House for another vote as it had changed on the Senate side – and anything and everything can happen this session, so it is not quite done. However, work will continue to help shepherd this bill forward to the finish line.
