By Donya Parrish, MCU VP- Risk Management

You may have noticed that 2022 is an election year. If you haven’t, you will soon as ads and candidate promotions start. That means your credit union may also be getting requests to open campaign accounts. It is a good time to review your procedures with staff so the process goes smoothly with the candidate and their treasurer and instills confidence in the credit union with them.

The Montana Commissioner of Political Practices has guidelines and details available for candidates on the rules for setting up campaign accounts, reporting, and more. You can see the banking requirements on the COPP page (scroll down to the second section ‘Campaign Banking Information and Requirements’.) While the accounts are the responsibility of the campaign, it is suggested you set your procedures to match them. That includes requiring an EIN for the campaign tax reporting (since it is a separate ‘entity’ from the individual) and possibly a separate account for the primary and general elections.

If you have any questions, contact me and we can work to resolve it.