By the Time It’s a Regulation, It’s Too Late

by Katie Marisic, NAFCU’s Director of Political Affairs

Dodd-Frank, which created the CFPB, was passed without much deliberation (and without NAFCU’s support) and is responsible for many of the issues credit unions are dealing with today.  The CFPB has been up and running since July 2011, in that short time they have issued thousands of pages of regulation and credit union compliance officers across the country have been dealing with the aftermath.  Despite our best efforts, what we are seeing is that by the time it becomes regulation it is too late.

Velociraptors became famous in the 1993 movie Jurassic Park because of their hunting stratagem.  By the time you saw the one standing right in front of you it was already too late, its unseen counterparts were swooping in to finish you off.  Which, when you think about it, is exactly like regulation issued by the CFPB, by the time you see it, no matter how terrible it is, it’s already too late to do anything about it, carnage ensues.  It’s velociregulation!

Velociregulation is something we want to avoid, but that doesn’t mean credit unions should fear Washington, D.C. With close to 95 million credit union members across the country we have the opportunity to make a real impact on legislation before it is passed.

Legislation, like the T-Rex, can be formidable and frightening but it isn’t unstoppable. A large, well-organized and active group of people can incapacitate, restrain and even defeat it before it gets going.  The best part is, if your group is big enough, each member of the group doesn’t have to do much work. What if all you had to do was pick up the phone or send an email, would you be more likely to get involved in the fight?

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