Credit unions can rest easy knowing the word 'banking' will not be taken out of their vocabulary.

The 2018 federal budget stated credit unions can keep using terms like "bank", "banker" and "banking" to describe their transactions.

Getting rid of this term could cost upwards of 80 million dollars, said Access Credit Union CEO and President Larry Davey.

"Which is a significant amount of money that was really going to provide no benefit to the membership," Davey added.

Last year the issue came about from federal regulators enforcing the Bank Act.

Access Credit Union CEO and President Larry Davey"They were simply trying to take their job to the nth degree, and enforce every letter of the law," said Davey. "Why it came about? It could have been that there was a push from the bankers' side, it could have been there was a realization that the Bank Act should be changed to be more inclusive of a credit union."

Davey noted questions about why this rule was almost enforced, after many years of not being an issue, would have to be directed to the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI).

"I think there's just a greater understanding that, while the banks are federally regulated and follow stringent rules, credit unions are provincially regulated and follow many similar rules," Davey explained.

"There's just an overall understanding that it's just words in the language," he added.

Changes to verbiage will not have to be made, and Davey is thankful to the Canadian Credit Union Association, who worked with the Minister of Finance, to keep credit unions from having to make such a costly change.

"Often we're confronted with many regulations we're not sure... why they're in effect. This one came back to logic," said Davey.

Related articles:

More Credit Unions Join Fight To Use The "B" Word

Credit Unions Banned From Using The Term "Banking"