The Iowa Credit Union League, which supports Iowa’s credit unions through education programs and efforts to lobby regulatory and political officials, has a number of projects and priorities lined up for the coming year. The Business Record spoke last week with Justin Hupfer, vice president of government affairs, and Patrick Jury, vice president, about the group’s goals.

Q: What are you working on?

A: We’re proactively pushing for an industry-specific bill that would better able credit unions to serve their members. It would allow members to vote in elections of volunteer boards electronically. And it would require continuing education of directors. We also want to reduce the regulatory burdens on credit unions. Ninety-nine percent of credit unions are state chartered. Iowa law requires credit unions to have federal insurance, which means we also fall under some federal regulation, and some rules are duplicative. One idea would be to buy private deposit insurance. Seventeen states allow this now, and I haven’t heard of any problems.

Q: Are there other projects?

A: We want to have a discussion – not legislation – on the importance of financial education and literacy. When Iowa kids take tests related to financial education, we get a “D.” We need to do better. We need to educate our children about issues such as credit card debt and how interest rates work.

Q: There have been some tensions between credit unions and banks in prior years. What do you expect this year?

A: We would argue that they (banks) should probably be picking on someone they’re own size. Banks want to increase our taxes and reduce the amount of products that we offer. You could add up all of the assets of credit unions in the state and it wouldn’t be half the size of Wells Fargo’s assets. The total assets of credit unions are about $4 billion. For banks in Iowa, it’s about $50 billion.

Q: Some credit unions in Iowa are quite large. The Deere Community Credit Union, for instance, has more than $1 billion in assets.

A: Banks would like us to be like we were in the 1930s. We’re for competition. We think it leads to better choices for consumers.

Q: What are you planning as a political organization?

A: The banks in Iowa do a good job of electing bankers to the state legislature. We’re going to have to play a role to make sure we take care of credit unions. We need to elect people who are supportive of credit unions. Banks complain a lot. We say if it is so good to be a credit union, you’d see more banks wanting to become a credit union. Ultimately, we’d like to be left alone.