However, he told the Morning News, "Credit unions play an important role in our economy. One of the key components of a credit union is that they are controlled by their members. Anything that empowers credit union members would have to be viewed as a good thing.

"In fact, perhaps if credit union members had been more empowered over the past 20 years, we wouldn't find ourselves in this situation. I would guess that, if given the choice, credit union members would not have invested so much of their money into what has become these massive financial institutions."

But both the Utah Department of Financial Institutions and the Utah League of Credit Unions expressed concerns with the bill. Ed Leary, commissioner of the financial institutions department, said he opposed the portion of the bill that seemed to transfer governing power from credit unions' boards of directors to their members, raising safety and soundness concerns. And he questioned whether requiring credit unions to provide members' contact information would violate privacy laws. He supported a provision requiring insurance.

Scott Simpson, president of the credit union league, told the committee that "now is not the time" to open a bill like HB277.

"I will stipulate that the state credit union charter is broken, that it needs to be fixed," Simpson said. "But I don't believe that this is the context, political or otherwise, in which it should be fixed. We're willing to discuss this, and we believe that at some point in the future we're going to have to discuss this. But if the state wants to be, once and for all, out of the credit union business, this will be the bill that facilitates that."

The House Rules Committee now has HB277 and will determine whether it is sent to the House floor for action.

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E-mail: jnii@desnews.com