Fed actions have helped keep CU loan demand ‘fairly steady’

The Federal Reserve Board of Governors’ work has boosted confidence in the financial system in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, CUNA wrote to the Senate Banking Committee Tuesday. The committee heard semi-annual testimony from Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell Tuesday.

“The unprecedented shutdown of the American and world economies has led to economic uncertainty for individuals and businesses of all types. Changes to regulations and the creation of new lending programs by the Board to provide loans to businesses will help individuals and business weather the storm… For credit unions these changes have helped to keep member loan demand fairly steady and mortgage pipelines in particular have been near capacity,” the letter reads. “Near-record numbers of members have refinanced into lower-rate mortgages and effectively freed up cashflow to meet daily needs and build precautionary savings.”

CUNA also offered comments on several recent Fed actions, including:

• Fully supporting the March 15 decision to reduce reserve requirement ratios of transaction accounts, as well as the April 24 interim final rule deleting the six-account-transfer-per-month limit;

 

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