The European Council presidency and European Parliament reached a provisional agreement on the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) that allows for the proportional treatment of credit unions under new regulatory requirements on the security of financial institution network and information systems, as well as critical third parties that provide ICT- (information communication technologies) related services to them, such as cloud platforms and data analytics services. 

The proportional approach included in the agreement, which will allow policymakers to consider the size, nature, scale and complexity of credit union services, activities and operations, was advocated for by World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) and its partner, the European Network of Credit Unions (ENCU), comprised of credit union member associations from Croatia, Estonia, Ireland, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania and Ukraine.

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 that are exempt under the EU Capital Requirements Directive (CRD IV exempt under Article 2(5) of Directive 2013/36/EU). 

“We thank the European Parliament for listening to our needs and tailoring rules that are appropriate for credit unions, while also accomplishing 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 Senior Vice President of Advocacy and General Counsel.

WOCCU and 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, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, and Ukraine) and the European Commission.

WOCCU and 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.

ENCU members involved during this process include 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).