CUNA launches ‘Ease the Burden’ Campaign to combat regulatory burden
WASHINGTON, DC (April 29, 2016) — The Credit Union National Association (CUNA) launched a campaign aimed at the most pressing issue facing credit unions – regulatory burden. CUNA’s Ease the Burden campaign features a website that will serve to activate credit union members to weigh in on how regulatory burden negatively impacts them and their not-for-profit financial cooperative.
“We have two main goals for this campaign,” said CUNA president/CEO Jim Nussle. “First, we want to educate credit union members on how burdensome regulation impacts them directly and activate them to contact lawmakers and regulators with a message of reducing the regulatory burden on credit unions. Second, through this member activation, we want to educate Congress—and eventually regulators—on the harm to credit union members, consumers and constituents caused by undue and misplaced regulation of credit unions and their member-owners.”
The facts are clear. CUNA’s recent regulatory burden study found:
- Since 2010, total regulatory costs for credit unions have increased 39% to $6.1 billion.
- Credit unions have lost $1.1 billion in revenue due to regulatory costs.
- Out-of-control federal regulations have led to a staggering $7.2 billion total impact on credit unions.
In additional to CUNA’s recently regulatory burden study, we conducted a survey asking what credit unions would do if these lost costs were returned to credit unions. The top two responses were that credit unions would provide lower rates on mortgages and higher interest rates on deposits.
“Instead of Congress and federal regulators focusing on the real problems with Wall Street and the big banks in the aftermath of the financial crisis, they created an expensive new regulatory environment that hurts credit unions on Main Street and the members who own them,” said Nussle. “We need to make sure our members know how much policymakers missed the target when they tried to reform Wall Street. Their ill-conceived new regulations place a heavy burden on credit unions and, in fact, are hurting the very consumers they were designed to protect.”
In addition to this campaign, CUNA recently unveiled a Regulatory Burden Calculator to help credit calculate their own regulatory burden costs. The calculator is available here.
About CUNA
Credit Union National Association (CUNA) is the only national association that advocates on behalf of all of America’s credit unions, which are owned by 135 million consumer members. CUNA, along with its network of affiliated state credit union leagues, delivers unwavering advocacy, continuous professional growth and operational confidence to protect the best interests of all credit unions. For more information about CUNA, visit cuna.org. To find your nearest credit union, visit YourMoneyFurther.com.
