WASHINGTON, DC (July 13, 2026) |
The Defense Credit Union Council today sent a letter to Chairman Pete Sessions and Ranking Member Kweisi Mfume of the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Operations ahead of the Subcommittee’s July 15 hearing, “Emerging Fraud Threats and the Evolving Fraud Landscape.”
In the letter, DCUC Chief Advocacy Officer Jason Stverak emphasized the growing fraud risks facing servicemembers, veterans, federal employees, retirees, and their families, including identity theft, account takeover, payment scams, elder financial exploitation, AI-enabled fraud, synthetic identity fraud, and benefit-related scams.
“Defense credit unions are often the first line of defense when military and veteran families are targeted by fraudsters,” said Jason Stverak, Chief Advocacy Officer of DCUC. “Servicemembers and veterans face unique financial risks because of deployments, frequent relocations, remote account access, and reliance on federal benefit systems. Congress has an important opportunity to strengthen fraud prevention, improve coordination, and ensure credit unions have the tools they need to protect their members.”
DCUC’s letter highlights the extensive work defense credit unions are already doing to combat fraud, including member education, frontline employee training, scam alerts, account monitoring, suspicious transaction detection, elder fraud prevention, and partnerships with law enforcement, federal agencies, base leaders, veterans organizations, and community partners.
The letter also urges Congress to adopt a balanced policy approach that targets criminal actors and strengthens fraud prevention without imposing broad liability shifts on credit unions for scams that originate outside the financial institution’s control.
“Fraud prevention requires a coordinated response,” Stverak added. “Credit unions, federal agencies, law enforcement, payment networks, telecommunications providers, and digital platforms all have a role to play. Congress should focus on improving real-time information sharing, modernizing outdated rules, supporting responsible innovation, and protecting consumers without weakening the community-based institutions already working to keep them safe.”
DCUC’s recommendations include:
Strengthening public-private fraud information sharing among financial institutions, federal agencies, law enforcement, payment networks, telecommunications providers, and digital platforms.
Supporting interagency coordination to identify and stop payment scams before funds are lost.
Modernizing funds-availability and payment rules so credit unions have reasonable flexibility to slow or verify suspicious transactions when objective fraud indicators are present.
Helping smaller and community-based financial institutions adopt advanced fraud detection, identity verification, and cybersecurity tools.
Ensuring federal digital identity systems are risk-based, privacy-preserving, accessible, and accountable.
Investing in targeted fraud education for military and veteran communities through trusted messengers, including defense credit unions, military installations, veterans service organizations, and federal partners.
DCUC also encouraged lawmakers to recognize the unique fraud risks facing military-connected consumers and to ensure that federal fraud prevention efforts account for deployment, frequent moves, overseas addresses, military spouse circumstances, caregiver access, and the needs of veterans and retirees.
“Defense credit unions are ready to serve as a resource to Congress as policymakers consider how to combat emerging fraud threats,” Stverak said. “Protecting military and veteran communities from fraud is not only a consumer protection issue; it is a financial readiness, national security, and public trust issue.”