WASHINGTON (January 28, 2014) -- In response to President Obama’s State of the Union address, National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU) President and CEO Dan Berger issued the following statement.
“NAFCU appreciates the president’s call for a year of action in 2014. NAFCU looks forward to working with the administration and Congress to advance our country’s economic prosperity especially through several key issues that also reflect our priorities for 2014 -- including patent reform, housing finance reform and increased small business lending.
“We welcome President Obama’s call to pass patent legislation and advance initiatives on patent reform to simplify and strengthen our patent system that will promote innovation and not litigation. NAFCU has supported several bills that would help discourage patent trolls from filing frivolous lawsuits.
“We applaud President Obama’s call to help small businesses. The nation’s credit unions are uniquely qualified to help make this a reality by strengthening access to financial services in communities throughout Main Street America. By lifting the arbitrary member business lending cap on credit unions, even more capital can flow to small businesses to help create much-needed jobs without the need for any new taxes or government programs.
“NAFCU supports President’s Obama’s ideal of keeping the dream of homeownership alive for future generations of Americans. Credit unions continued to provide affordable mortgages throughout the economic crisis. Since 2008, credit unions share of first mortgage originations have increased from 4.63 percent to 6.34 percent in 2013. NAFCU continues to advocate that any reform of the government-sponsored enterprises, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and housing finance overall ensures unfettered and guaranteed access for credit unions to the secondary mortgage market and fair pricing based on loan quality instead of loan volume.
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The National Association of Federal Credit Unions is the only national organization that focuses exclusively on federal issues affecting credit unions, representing its members before the federal government and the public.