WASHINGTON, DC (July 13, 2026) |
The Defense Credit Union Council (DCUC) today submitted four letters to House and Senate leaders ahead of congressional hearings on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s semi-annual report and the Federal Reserve’s semi-annual monetary policy report. The letters urge lawmakers to preserve strong consumer protections, financial stability, and payment system resiliency while ensuring federal policy recognizes the distinct structure of member-owned credit unions and the unique financial needs of servicemembers, veterans, Department of Defense personnel, and military families.
DCUC’s letters were sent to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs and the House Committee on Financial Services. The CFPB letters address the Bureau’s semi-annual report, the House Financial Services Committee’s consideration of the CFPB Reform Act of 2026 discussion draft, and the need for a more accountable, transparent, and coordinated consumer financial protection framework. The Federal Reserve letters address monetary policy, payment system modernization, fraud prevention, interchange, digital assets, and the importance of tailored supervision for community-based financial institutions.
“Consumer protection is strongest when it is targeted, transparent, and grounded in the real-world needs of consumers,” said Jason Stverak, DCUC Chief Advocacy Officer. “Defense credit unions support strong action against fraud, financial exploitation, abusive practices, and other demonstrable harm. At the same time, policymakers must avoid duplicative supervision and one-size-fits-all mandates that divert resources away from affordable lending, cybersecurity, financial counseling, fraud prevention, and direct service to military communities. DCUC is asking Congress to advance a regulatory framework that targets bad actors, coordinates with the NCUA, restores a formal credit union voice at the CFPB, and preserves access to responsible financial products.”
DCUC emphasized that defense credit unions play a unique role in the financial system. They operate on military installations and in communities across the United States and around the world, providing safe, affordable, and trusted financial services during deployments, relocations, overseas assignments, government shutdowns, natural disasters, and periods of economic uncertainty. For military families, financial readiness is directly tied to military readiness.
“Financial readiness is inseparable from military readiness,” said Anthony Hernandez, DCUC President and CEO. “Defense credit unions serve families navigating deployments, PCS moves, overseas assignments, government disruptions, targeted scams, and persistent household cost pressures. Our message to Congress is clear: consumer protection, secure payments innovation, and regulatory modernization must work together so military and veteran families can access safe, affordable, and trusted financial services wherever duty takes them.”
In its CFPB letters, DCUC urged Congress and Acting Director Russell Vought to preserve the Bureau’s consumer protection mission while improving accountability, predictability, and coordination across the federal financial regulatory system. DCUC supports reforms that would strengthen congressional oversight, improve transparency in rulemaking and enforcement, clarify legal standards, require stronger economic analysis, and ensure that regulations are tailored to the size, structure, and risk profile of credit unions.
DCUC also called on the CFPB to conduct a comprehensive review of existing rules, guidance, examination manuals, advisory opinions, and interpretive materials to identify requirements that should be simplified, tailored, or eliminated for not-for-profit credit unions. The Council urged the Bureau to provide clear rules rather than relying on enforcement actions or supervisory findings to announce new obligations, recognize good-faith compliance efforts, remove subjective “reputational risk” concepts from supervisory materials, and provide practical compliance resources for smaller institutions.
A central recommendation in the CFPB letters is the restoration of the CFPB’s Credit Union Advisory Council or the creation of a permanent advisory body with equivalent access to Bureau leadership. DCUC noted that a formal credit union advisory body would help the Bureau identify unintended consequences before they reduce access to responsible financial products, particularly for servicemembers, veterans, rural communities, minority depository institutions, CDFI-certified credit unions, and other community-based institutions.
The CFPB letters also highlight the need to protect military consumers from fraud, financial exploitation, identity theft, illegal debt collection, military allotment abuse, predatory lending, and scams associated with deployment or permanent-change-of-station moves. DCUC urged stronger coordination among the CFPB, Department of Defense, NCUA, Department of Veterans Affairs, Federal Trade Commission, law enforcement, and credit unions serving military communities. The Council also called for formal partnerships with defense credit unions to expand financial education without duplicating programs already operating on military installations and in military communities.
On data access and innovation, DCUC urged the Bureau to ensure that open banking, Section 1033 implementation, artificial intelligence, faster payments, digital assets, and emerging financial technologies do not compromise consumer privacy, account security, or credit union safety and soundness. DCUC stressed that third-party data recipients should be subject to rigorous privacy, cybersecurity, authorization, record-retention, and liability standards, and that credit unions should not bear responsibility for breaches, misuse, or fraudulent transactions caused by unaffiliated third parties outside their control.
In its Federal Reserve letters, DCUC urged Congress to examine the impact of monetary policy, elevated household costs, and higher interest rates on military families, veterans, and community lenders. While recognizing the importance of price stability, DCUC noted that many military households continue to face elevated housing costs, childcare expenses, insurance premiums, and everyday living costs. Prolonged elevated interest rates can increase borrowing costs, reduce mortgage affordability, slow small business formation, and place added strain on families already facing deployments, relocations, and military spouse employment disruptions.
DCUC also encouraged continued investment in payment system modernization, including FedNow, ISO 20022 implementation, payment security enhancements, and fraud mitigation initiatives. The letters urge Congress and the Federal Reserve to ensure smaller financial institutions, including defense credit unions, have equitable access to payment innovation without disproportionate technology, compliance, or operational costs.
The Federal Reserve letters further call for policymakers to preserve consumer choice, fraud-prevention investments, and community institution participation in the payments ecosystem as Congress evaluates interchange, routing, instant payments, digital assets, stablecoins, and emerging financial technologies. DCUC warned that mandates or price controls that reduce the ability of credit unions to invest in fraud prevention, cybersecurity, card protections, rewards, and low- or no-fee services could ultimately harm the consumers such policies are intended to help.
Across all four letters, DCUC submitted questions for the record designed to focus congressional oversight on practical outcomes for consumers and community institutions. These questions address CFPB governance and funding, regulatory tailoring, NCUA coordination, military consumer protection, data security, third-party liability, FedNow access, payment fraud, cybersecurity, digital assets, stablecoins, interchange, housing affordability, VA home loans, and the economic impact of federal policy on defense credit unions and the military communities they serve.
“DCUC will continue working with Congress, the CFPB, the Federal Reserve, the NCUA, and other federal partners to ensure regulation protects consumers while preserving the ability of defense credit unions to serve those who serve our country,” Stverak said.