Kootenay-Columbia MP Wayne Stetski called out Liberal finance minister Bill Morneau on Friday for failing to protect Canadian consumers and credit unions.
At issue is a June 30 edict from the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) forbidding credit unions from using simple, common terminology including bank, banking, and banker.
“Frankly, this is ridiculous,” Stetski said. “It is outrageous. Our credit unions are highly regulated and respectable institutions that shouldn’t be blocked from using the everyday words that best describe their services.”
Stetski said that the OSFI’s pronouncement is based on an 80-year-old law that has never previously been enforced with credit unions.
“Parliament intent in this section of the Banking Act is to avoid obvious examples of entities deceiving the public. It wasn’t meant to police the common verbs used by accredited institutions,” he said.
According to the Canadian Credit Union Association, over 5.6 million Canadians use their services, including almost two million in British Columbia alone. There are 15 branches across Kootenay-Columbia, representing six member-owned credit unions.
Roberta Bobicki, CEO of the Revelstoke Credit Union, said that changes will lead to confusion among consumers, who won’t know what services their local credit unions are providing.
“It’s important to us that our members and the public know that credit unions can offer the same banking services that the federally regulated commercial banks offer,” Bobicki said.
“In my riding of Kootenay-Columbia, credit unions give a significant amount of their profit back to their community every year,” Stetski said. “This unconscionable ruling will cost Canada’s credit unions $80 million meaning they’ll have less to give back.”
Stetski said he has written Morneau and urged him to quickly amend the regulations or the Banking Act to allow credit unions to use the verbs and adverbs that describe their business.
“This goes against commons sense, it goes against good management, and it goes against the interest of consumers.”