WASHINGTON – Leaders of the House Financial Services Committee have agreed to hold a long-sought hearing on the CU Regulatory Improvements Act some time in the next few weeks, according to one lawmaker involved in the talks.
The hearing will focus on the three main credit union priorities, including: enactment of a risk-based capital system for credit unions; lifting the limits on member business loans and allowing community chartered credit unions to branch into underserved communities, according to the lawmaker. “We’re going to get regulatory relief for credit unions this year,” he told The Credit Union Journal, though he could not commit to getting it passed as CURIA.
A hearing is considered a major step for the bill, and presumably would be followed by a vote in the Financial Services Committee.
A brief regulatory relief initiative, absent the three top credit union priorities, last week was tried in the Senate Banking Committee but was abandoned quickly after credit unions expressed their opposition. The House Financial Services Committee also is expected to consider a broader regulatory relief package for banks and credit unions, which CURIA could be part of.
Other parts of CURIA include provisions making it more difficult to convert a credit union to a mutual savings bank and to allow credit unions to continue to serve their select groups after they convert to a community charter.
The credit union lobby so far has failed to get a vote on CURIA, even though it has an unusually high number of sponsors, 143 members of the House. But that still does not ensure those sponsors will vote for the bill if it gets to the floor of the House.
Congressional credit union allies and credit union lobbyists were reluctant to talk publicly about the hearing yesterday for fear of setting in motion a major battle by the powerful banking lobby to sidetrack the hearing.
