Press
NAFCU Letter in Advance of CFPB Report Tomorrow
April 22, 2013
The Honorable Tim Johnson
Chairman
Senate Committee on Banking,
Housing and Urban Affairs
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
The Honorable Michael Crapo
Ranking Member
Senate Committee on Banking,
Housing and Urban Affairs
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
Re: The Importance of Regulatory Relief for our Nation’s Credit Unions
Dear Chairman Johnson and Ranking Member Crapo:
On behalf of the National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU), the only trade association exclusively representing the interests of our nation’s federal credit unions, I write in advance of tomorrow’s hearing featuring the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) Semi-Annual Report to Congress. NAFCU appreciates Director Cordray and the CFPB’s efforts to maintain an open line of communication with credit unions.
As we first wrote to you in February of this year, NAFCU continues to call on Congress to enact commonsense regulatory relief that will enable credit unions to better serve their 95 million member-owners moving forward. To that end, we urge the Committee to act on the ideas shared with you as part of NAFCU’s five-point plan on regulatory relief shared with you on February 12, 2013 (a copy of which is attached).
We also appreciate the Senate’s important oversight role and urge the Committee to encourage the Bureau to find new and creative ways within its current authority to lessen the burden of new regulations on credit unions. Examples of steps that the CFPB could take include using its authority to exempt small entities such as credit unions from rulemakings and also providing clear and concise written guidance when ambiguity arises on new CFPB rules.
In addition, as part of the Financial Stability Oversight Council, the CFPB, National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) and various other regulatory agencies have a statutory obligation to coordinate various rulemaking efforts. This type of coordination is essential to reducing regulatory relief for credit unions as new regulations being layered on top of outdated and existing regulations is commonplace and often goes unaddressed. We urge the Committee to continue to press all regulators in this regard.
We look forward to working with you and your staff to ensure that the views of credit unions are conveyed and that regulatory relief for credit unions is given due consideration during the 113th Congress.
Thank you for your attention to this important matter. If you have any questions or would like further information about any of these issues, please do not hesitate to contact me or NAFCU’s Senior Associate Director of Legislative Affairs Jillian Pevo by telephone at (703) 842-2286 or by e-mail at jpevo@nafcu.org.
Sincerely,
Brad Thaler
Vice President of Legislative Affairs
cc: Members of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs