Financial Organization Submit UIGEA Views

Thursday, December 20, 2007 | Adrian Milewski

The Independent Community Bankers of America and the Credit Union National Association submitted their remarks to the Federal Reserve Board and the Treasury Department last week about the planned Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act Laws.

While the Credit Union National Association (CUNA) disagreed saying that the plans should be canceled for now, the International Community Bankers of America (ICBA) commended the narrow and reasonable proposed law. CUNA thinks that the credit union compliance with the planned rules to combat illegal online gambling it would be difficult if not impossible. The CUNA said in its comment letter to the Federal Reserve Board and to the Treasury Department that the law which was passed by Congress has estimable objectives but it is very difficult to implement.

The CUNA further said that rather than continuing with the implementation for the current proposal that would raise a wide range of problems, the regulators should combine and work together along with the Congress to build up an approach that would meet the public policy goals in a smart and understandable way and by not creating any excessive hardships for the financial sector during the process.

The problems that were associated with the UIGEA regulations according to CUNA were the need to develop procedures and policy explanations, the unclear definition of “Unlawful internet gambling”, enlarging the safe harbour act, and suggests that the scheduled date should be expanded so that the need to clarify the enforcement provisions can be addressed.

The comment letter of the group also brought out the point that CEO/President Dan Mica had recently communicated with the group regarding concerns about the UIGEA to Representative Barney Frank who had already proposed a legislation that would replace the UIGEA. The letter that was written to Mr Frank by Mica advised that the action on the UIGEA should be stopped until and unless a more reasonable approach could be made by the regulators and the Congress.

However, the ICAB have a different look towards the planned UIGEA regulations. Viveca Ware, the ICBA director of technology and payment policy said that ICBA congratulates the agencies for planning a regulation that would fulfill the requirements of the law without striking any undue new burdens on the payment system.

Viveca Ware said that the community bankers think that it is serious that their resources are being focused when there is risk to their financial soundness. He further said that ICBA is very concerned about the payment system of the nation which is used to analyze, track and block the individual payment transactions that are being used for such requirements.

In spite of its outward support, the ICBA surely have concerns about the planned regulations that were put forth in the comment letter as well as that included in the explanation of the terms and phases.

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