CU Trades Keep Eye On Hearings In House, Senate This Week

WASHINGTON–Credit union lobbyists will be keeping an eye on several hearings and mark-ups scheduled in the House and Senate this week.The House Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing on the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency on Wednesday, and later that same day the Subcommittee on Capital Markets will hold a hearing on reforming the credit rating agencies. On Thursday, the House Financial Services Committee will hear from Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke on a host of financial regulatory reform proposals.On the Senate side, the Banking Committee is holding another hearing on bank supervision, which is a continuation of a previous hearing last month, and Wednesday will have an hearing exploring "International Cooperation To Modernize Financial Regulation."Neither NAFCU nor CUNA was invited to testify at the CFPA hearing in the House Financial Services Committee, but both trade groups will file comments for the record. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) has circulated a discussion draft of the CFPA, which CUNA's Ryan Donovan said was "a couple of steps in the right direction" but still doesn't go far enough to address some credit union concerns about the proposed agency, adding that Frank has indicated he is still open to dialogue on these issues.