RALEIGH, N.C.— Before heading out for their summer recess, members of the N.C. House attempted to grant North Carolina-chartered credit unions expanded authority through a last-minute addition to an unrelated tax policy bill, Business North Carolina reported.
However, the effort stalled in the Senate, where lawmakers voted 41-1 against concurring with the House’s revised version of Senate Bill 595. Sen. Gale Adcock(D-Wake) was the lone supporter of immediate passage. Differences in the House and Senate bills will now be discussed in a conference committee.
Business North Carolina noted the two chambers have been at odds on credit-union policy for a couple sessions.
“The House proposal was similar to a bill getting pigeonholed in the Senate, after passing the House 85-25,” Business North Carolina explained
According to Business North Carolina, the House majority supports a proposal that would allow credit unions to expand their business activities and serve a larger portion of the state’s population. However, the bill has faced steady opposition from North Carolina’s banking industry.
The House approach would “give credit unions the ability to go from having one common bond to stitching multiple common bonds together and thereby be able to include anyone, anywhere in the world, and any business as a member,” Nathan Batts, lobbyist for the N.C. Bankers Association, said in a message to the group’s members, Business North Carolina said.
“That monumental change — plus additional new powers — sought to give credit unions practically all the powers of banks, without taxing, supervising and regulating them like banks,” Batts said.
“Banks have closed one-in-four branches in North Carolina in just the past decade, many of them in rural or underserved areas," said Dan Schline, CEO of the Carolinas Credit Union League. "This bill would permit credit unions to accept as members people who live in communities that no longer have convenient access to bank branches. It is unreasonable for banks to close branches in a town and then argue no other entity can serve that town, either.”