In a stunning announcement, the federal Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) issued an advisory that bans credit unions across Canada from using the term “banking” to describe the services we offer to you, our members. And it gets even more ludicrous: if we use that term or related terms such as “bank” or “banker” we could face criminal charges. Yes, you read that correctly… criminal charges!
Why now?
Your guess is as good as ours. Credit unions – and our members – have used these terms to describe what we do for decades. We believe that the OSFI’s directive reflects a very strict and unreasonable interpretation of the Bank Act and it’s inconsistent with the Regulator’s past practice. Credit unions are not banks, nor do we want to be, but to ban common language simply doesn’t make sense. Can you imagine replacing ‘banking’ with: I’m going to do my credit union-ing today? Doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, does it?!
Credit unions are provincially regulated financial institutions and have been operating in Canada for over 100 years. Though our services are the same as the federally chartered banks, our values are very different. Credit unions are cooperatives; our members are our owners and profits are returned to our members and invested in our communities. As a whole, Canadian credit unions contribute over $56 million to support local communities and in 2016 paid 160 million to their members.
We believe this decision makes it extremely difficult for Interior Savings and other credit unions to compete fairly with the big banks. It is estimated that in order for credit unions to comply with this ban it will cost, at the very least, a whopping 80 million dollars! Imagine having to remove all references of “banking” or “bank” from websites, marketing and advertising materials, not to mention the cost of having to create and popularize new words. Seems to us that money would be better spent investing in our communities.
Lend your voice
True to our cooperative values, credit unions across the country are working together by calling on the federal government to reverse OSFI’s decision. We invite you, our members, to lend your voice to the cause and help us restore common sense. Contact your local MP and share your views. If social media is your thing, feel free to share this article or the #iBANKwithacreditunion posts on our Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn pages. Let’s show OSFI the power of cooperatives!