Fighting for credit union regulatory relief in 2016

Last year, our industry saw several legislative and regulatory victories. One of those wins modernized privacy notice rules, which fulfilled a key aspect of NAFCU’s five-point regulatory relief plan. We also saw important improvements with NCUA’s field-of-membership rules and member business lending rules.

We made some excellent progress – but we’re not done yet.

As 2016 begins, I’m confident that credit unions will achieve meaningful regulatory relief this year. That will be our primary focus in the months ahead.

In particular, we’ll be closely watching the CFPB’s interest in regulating overdraft programs. We know credit unions and their members rely on overdraft programs and that credit unions run those programs responsibly. A recent NAFCU survey found that many credit unions fear that losing overdraft programs would force their members to seek out risky and expensive alternatives.

Another area of concern is the implementation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. NAFCU disagrees with the Federal Communications Commission’s interpretation of the law, which prohibits certain autodialed calls from financial institutions. We believe it will prevent credit unions from communicating quickly with their members about identity theft or data breaches. For that reason, NAFCU sued the FCC last fall to challenge its interpretation on behalf of credit unions. This year, we’ll fight for a fair reading of the law for our industry.

In addition to regulatory relief, NAFCU will continue to fight for a national data security standard for retailers. Every week, we learn about a new data breach. Credit unions treat their members’ sensitive data carefully, but only Congress can force retailers and merchants act more responsibly.

We know that more than five years after the Dodd-Frank Act, credit unions are still struggling to deal with the continuing onslaught of regulation – a crackdown intended for the big banks of Wall Street that has unfairly hurt credit unions in the process. We won’t stop our fight against overregulation, and we will continue to make credit unions’ voices heard loud and clear in Congress and at the regulatory agencies.

On a final note, I thought you may want to know why we fight so hard for credit unions. Here’s why.

• NAFCU believes that credit unions are the best option for consumers. Period.
• We believe credit unions deserve the absolute best in advocacy, education and compliance assistance.
• We believe in providing NAFCU members “extreme member service.” Every. Single. Day.
• We believe you deserve an association that is frugal, efficient and effective when spending your dues dollars.
• We are not just a trade association. We believe in credit unions and their mission.