CUNA outlines credit union priorities ahead of Tuesday’s Congressional hearings
WASHINGTON, DC (April 30, 2019) — Credit Union National Association sent setters for the record to House and Senate subcommittees to outline credit union priorities following today’s hearings on housing, payday lending, illegal robocalls, regulatory guidance and international development.
- House Financial Services Committee
As Congress looks for solutions to the problems surrounding the increasingly limited housing stock, CUNA rallies Congress to recognize the potential for credit unions to help alleviate the challenge by revisiting the arbitrary statutory cap that limits most credit unions to currently lending no more than 12.25% of their assets to businesses. Credit unions play an increasingly important role in the housing finance market and, as a result, have a vested interest in ensuring an adequate supply of housing stock. Many credit union members, throughout the United States, live in communities where the nation’s housing stock has become more limited and unaffordable. Read the letter in full here.
- Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions
CUNA continues to urge the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to further examine and revise its Payday Rule to avoid any negative effects on credit unions’ ability to offer competitive short-term, small dollar loan programs while still holding accountable non-depository payday lenders, especially those entities with histories of bad behavior. The federal shutdown is the latest example of the daily work credit unions do to go above and beyond to assist members in need. Individual credit unions have created short-term, small dollar lending programs that are specifically-designed to meet the financial needs and goals of their field-of-membership. Read the letter in full here.
- Subcommittee State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs
This year, CUNA is seeking to increase the funding for the Cooperative Development Program (CDP) programs to $17 million. The CDP is a global initiative that focuses on building capacity of cooperative businesses and cooperative systems for self-reliance, local ownership, and sustainability. A main source of funding for the World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) has been the CDP of the Development Assistance account in the State-Foreign Operations and Related Programs Appropriations bill. CUNA is a member of WOCCU, which is the leading trade association and development organization for the international credit union movement. Read the letter in full here.
- Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs
CUNA maintains that the CFPB has the authority to delegate the supervisory responsibilities for credit unions with more than $10 billion in assets to the National Credit Union Administration, and should do so based on credit unions’ deep history of consumer protection, the support this action has received from NCUA, the protections in the Dodd-Frank Act that preserve the Bureau’s authority, and the opportunity this action presents to reallocate supervisory resources to other critical Bureau priorities. CUNA highlighted their recent letter to the CFPB for the Committee regarding the Bureau’s supervision of the nation’s not-for-profit credit unions. Read the letter in full here.
- Subcommittee on Communications and Technology and Technology
CUNA, along with 16 other industry trade groups, wrote to strongly support the shared goal of stopping unlawful actors that seek to defraud or commit other unlawful acts against consumers through illegal robocalls. The organizations urge the Committee to support the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) unprecedented work to bring enforcement actions against illegal actors, while facilitating the ability of legitimate businesses to place valued and important calls to their customers using modern communications technologies. Read the letter in full here.
CUNA also sent a letter supporting two House resolutions, H. Res. 327, which supports the protection of elders through financial literacy, and H. Res. 328 which encourages greater public-private collaboration to promote financial literacy for students and young adults. Read the letter in full 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.
