National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU) Executive Vice President of Government Affairs and General Counsel Carrie Hunt issued the following statement regarding the White House Council of Economic Advisers report released today, “The Performance of Community Banks Over Time.”
“Common sense is the largest piece of evidence demonstrating the Dodd-Frank Act’s negative impact on credit unions. Since the enactment of Dodd-Frank, we have lost over 1,500 credit unions, which represents 20 percent of the industry,” said Hunt. “A substantial number of the credit unions that closed or merged did so due to overwhelming compliance costs related to stifling regulatory burden. Without exemptions from rules designed to rein in bad actors, credit unions are being forced to comply with regulations that only the largest banks can afford. In fact, many big banks view these regulations as a competitive advantage. Even bipartisan majorities in both the House and Senate recognized the burdens on credit unions in letters earlier this year to CFPB Director Richard Cordray, calling on him to do more to better tailor and exempt credit unions from burdensome CFPB rules.”
NAFCU and its members have testified on the damaging impact of Dodd Frank on not-for-profit, member-owned credit unions on numerous occasions before Congress. Excerpts of the testimony are referenced in a blog post released today by the House Financial Services Committee Republicans in response to the new report.
NAFCU was the only financial services trade association to oppose subjecting credit unions to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) authority under Dodd-Frank. The association maintains that CFPB should exercise its authority to exempt credit unions from regulations aimed at bad actors.