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16 April 2015
European Parliament Credit Union Interest Group Discusses
Regulatory Burden and Financial Inclusion with Credit
Unions in Brussels
BRUSSELS — The European Parliament Credit Union Interest Group, a caucus for Members of
the European Parliament (MEPs) who support credit unions, met with European credit union leaders on
16 April to discuss how regulatory burden affects credit unions’ efforts to promote financial inclusion.
European Parliament Vice President Ryszard Czarnecki (Poland) and MEP Marian Harkin (Republic of
Ireland) are the co-chairs of the European Parliament Credit Union Interest Group, and MEP Richard
Howitt (United Kingdom) is the group's vice-chair. In total, 15 MEPs from Austria, Finland, the Republic of
Ireland, Luxembourg, Poland and the United Kingdom who sit on the Parliament’s Economic and
Monetary Affairs (ECON) Committee are members of the interest group. Virtually all European Union
(EU) legislation that affects credit union regulation falls within the ECON Committee’s jurisdiction.
The meeting, held at European Parliament's Espace Léopold in Brussels, Belgium, included credit union
representatives from the European Network of Credit Unions (ENCU), the Association of British Credit
Unions, Ltd. (ABCUL), the Estonian Union of Credit Cooperatives (EUCC), the Federation of Romanian
Credit Unions (FEDCAR), FULM Savings House of Macedonia (FULM), the Irish League of Credit
Unions (ILCU), the National Association of Co-operative Savings and Credit Unions (NACSCU) of Poland,
and World Council of Credit Unions. Also in attendance were representatives of the governments of
Poland, the Netherlands, Lithuania, and the Republic of Macedonia.
At the meeting MEPs and credit union leaders discussed how credit unions play an important role in
promoting the financial inclusion of Europeans of modest means but are faced with expanding compliance
burdens that take resources away from serving their members. European credit unions are much smaller
than European banks and generally engage in less risky financial activities, but are subject to many EU
directives and regulations designed primarily to address problems in the banking sector. The credit union
representatives shared specific examples with MEPs regarding their financial inclusion efforts and
regulatory burden challenges in Estonia, Great Britain, Ireland, the Republic of Macedonia, Poland, and
Romania.
MEPs and credit unions also discussed how credit unions can be negatively impacted by banking
regulations in their capacity as bank customers even when they are exempt from a specific banking rule.
Recent examples include the Basel III liquidity rules’ requirement that banks increase their reserves held
against deposits made by credit unions, which have reduced the yields that credit unions earn on
investments in bank term deposits in the Republic of Ireland, as well as similar examples from Poland,
Romania and Macedonia.
In addition, participants discussed government initiatives that help support credit unions’ financial
inclusion efforts, such as the British government’s Credit Union Expansion Project.
MEPs at the meeting said that they shared credit unions’ concerns about the unintended consequences of
regulation and excessive compliance burdens. European Parliament Vice President Czarnecki urged credit
unions to continue this dialogue in order to prevent overregulation of credit unions at the European level
and to help make it easier for credit unions to provide their members with loans, savings and other
financial services at reasonable rates.