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NAFCU letter to congressional leaders in support of giving regulators ability to exempt credit unions from existing & new regulations

(February 25, 2015) — Below is NAFCU President and CEO Dan Berger’s letter to Senate Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby and Ranking Member Sherrod Brown and House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling and Ranking Member Maxine Waters in support of giving regulators ability to exempt all credit unions from existing and new regulations. Members of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives were copied on the letter.

In the letter, Berger expresses NAFCU’s support for the basic idea advanced by former Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chairman Sheila Bair—giving regulators the power to exempt community financial institutions from existing and new regulations.

The Honorable Richard Shelby Chairman Senate Committee on Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs United States Senate Washington, D.C. 20510		The Honorable Sherrod Brown Ranking Member Senate Committee on Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs United States Senate Washington, D.C. 20510
The Honorable Jeb Hensarling Chairman House Financial Services Committee United States House of Representatives Washington, D.C. 20515		The Honorable Maxine Waters Ranking Member House Financial Services Committee United States House of Representatives Washington, D.C. 20515
Re:  NAFCU Support for Giving Regulators Ability to Exempt All Credit Unions from Existing and New Regulations
Dear Chairman Shelby, Ranking Member Brown, Chairman Hensarling and Ranking Member Waters: On behalf of the National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU), the only trade association exclusively representing our nation’s federal credit unions, I write today to express NAFCU’s support for the basic idea advanced by former Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chairman Sheila Bair—giving regulators the power to exempt community financial institutions from existing and new regulations.  Bair promoted the idea during an interview for an American Banker article, “The Easy Legislative Fix that Could Save Community Banks,” published online yesterday. NAFCU supports this general concept and believes that Congress enacting a provision giving regulators the flexibility to exempt all credit unions from new and existing regulations could provide meaningful regulatory relief for the credit union industry.  NAFCU could also support providing this exemption relief to community banks, while still maintaining the necessary regulatory requirements for larger “too-big-to-fail” institutions.  We would note that such authority is not unprecedented, as Section 1022 of the Dodd-Frank Act already grants the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) the authority to provide exemptions from various rulemakings.  NAFCU, however, believes that the CFPB has failed to utilize this authority to provide meaningful exemptions for credit unions from new regulatory burdens.  NAFCU hopes that enacting a broader exemption authority would encourage the CFPB, and allow other financial regulators to provide greater relief for community financial institutions. We urge Congress to consider a proposal for exemption authority for all credit unions as you look at the many ways to provide regulatory relief to community financial institutions.  Thank you for your attention to this matter.  If my colleagues or I can be of assistance to you, or if you have any questions regarding regulatory relief for our nation’s credit unions, please feel free to contact myself, or NAFCU’s Vice President of Legislative Affairs Brad Thaler at (703) 842-2204. Sincerely,   B.Dan Berger President and CEO   cc:        Members of the United States Senate Members of the United States House of Representatives

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