NAFCU urges for House support of MBL relief

NAFCU Vice President of Legislative Affairs Brad Thaler wrote to House leadership Wednesday to call for support for the bipartisan Access to Credit for Small Businesses Impacted by the COVID–19 Crisis Act, H.R. 1471. The NAFCU-sought legislation was introduced Monday by Reps. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa. and would provide a temporary exemption from the credit union member business lending (MBL) cap for loans made to small businesses as they recover from the coronavirus national emergency.

In the letter, Thaler urged members of the House to support the bill and advance it as part of pandemic recovery efforts. Thaler also noted that the current “arbitrary credit union MBL cap serves as a disincentive for many credit unions to focus on small business programs.”

Specifically, Thaler noted, the enactment of the bill would “help encourage more credit unions to establish and enhance member business lending programs designed to help their small business members recover from the COVID-19 pandemic beyond the PPP.”

The bill would allow credit unions to exempt from their MBL cap loans made within the year from when the national emergency that was declared on March 13, 2020, expires to small businesses to aid in their recovery of the coronavirus pandemic. It would also require the NCUA to issue implementing regulations that ensure a credit union’s safety and soundness are not impacted by the loans.

 

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