WASHINGTON — With the U.S. House of Representatives in recess this week, credit union lobbyists can focus their efforts on the Senate and the regulators.
Both NAFCU and CUNA will have representatives testifying before the full Senate Banking Committee during Tuesday's hearing on the secondary mortgage market. CUNA SVP of Research and Policy Analysis and Chief Economist Bill Hampel will serve as a witness for CUNA, while Apple FCU AVP of Risk Management John Harwell is scheduled to testify on behalf of NAFCU.
Though there will be no credit union testimony at a separate hearing slated for Thursday, the credit union trade groups will be monitoring the Senate Banking Committee's exploration of housing finance reform's impact on affordable housing.
CUNA said it continues to communicate on an almost daily basis with both NCUA and the CFPB about its concerns over the ever-growing compliance burden faced by credit unions, according to CUNA SVP Regulatory Advocacy and Deputy General Counsel Mary Dunn. Of particular concern, Dunn said, are CFPB's rules related to mortgages and remittances.
And while the CFPB is "duty bound" by Congress to implement any rules it makes within one year of promulgation, making it impossible for the bureau to delay the implementation date as the credit union trades had been lobbying for it to do, Dunn noted that CFPB Director Richard Cordray can tell the bureau's examiners to hold off on writing up credit unions on the new regs for several months.
If Cordray should decide to go that route, CUNA is calling on him to ensure that legal liability is held off for the same time period, as well.
Credit unions will also want to keep their eyes out for NCUA's Office of Inspector General's report on how NCUA handles and documents credit union failures.
CUNA also announced that Madeleine Albright, the United States' first female Secretary of State, will deliver the keynote address at the 2014 CUNA Governmental Affairs Conference scheduled for Feb. 23-27.
On a separate regulatory front, the Federal Reserve is hosting a number of town hall meetings on payments, with the first one coming up at FHLB-Atlanta on Nov 12, followed by Cleveland on Nov. 13, Chicago on Nov. 14, San Francisco on Nov. 15, Boston on Nov. 18 and Dallas on Nov. 20.
