WOCCU/ENCU Advocated Proportional Treatment Included for Credit Unions

The European Council presidency and the European Parliament reached a provisional agreement on the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), which will overhaul regulations in the financial sector in Europe that sets uniform requirements for the security of network and information systems as well as critical third parties which provide ICT (Information Communication Technologies)- related services to them. This includes services such as cloud platforms and data analytics services.

The World Council of Credit Unions together with its partner the European Network of Credit Unions, and its members from Croatia, Estonia, Ireland, Netherlands, N. Macedonia, Poland, Romania, and Ukraine advocated for the proportional treatment of DORA regulations by urging the governing bodies to consider the size, nature, scale, and complexity of their services, activities, and operations. 

The provisional agreement embraces the WOCCU/ENCU proportionality approach in several ways but most importantly by allowing Member States to establish rules for those entities exempt under Article 2(5) of Directive 2013/36/EU (i.e., CRD IV exempt entities). 

“We thank the European Parliament for listening to our needs and tailoring rules that are appropriate for credit unions but also accomplish our mutual goal of protecting our members information from ICT breaches and ensuring the safe and sound operations of financial institutions”, said Andrew Price, WOCCU Sr. VP of Advocacy/General Counsel. WOCCU/ENCU further thank the many people instrumental in shaping this agreement including:

MEP Billy Kelleher (Ireland), MEP Mairead McGuinness (Ireland), the ENCU Member States (Croatia, Estonia, Ireland, Netherlands, N. Macedonia, Poland, Romania, and Ukraine) and the European Commission.

WOCCU/ENCU will continue to be engaged as the agreement obtains approval by the Council and the European Parliament before going through the formal adoption procedure.

Members of ENCU involved during this process include the following: representatives of the Irish League of Credit Unions (ILCU), National Association of Co-operative Savings and Credit Unions (NACSCU) of Poland, Federation of Romanian Credit Unions (FEDCAR), Estonian Union of Credit Cooperatives (EUCC), North Macedonia's FULM Savings House, and the Dutch Association of Cooperating Credit Unions (VSK).