WASHINGTON – An effort to attach regulatory relief for banks and credit unions to the Wal-Mart Bank bill was abandoned yesterday after the credit union lobby expressed its opposition to the measure–but not before the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee pledged to find another bill to move regulatory relief.
It may be just as well, because the bill to bar commercial entities such as Wal-Mart Stores from owning bank-like Industrial Loan Companies passed the committee by a narrow, 11-10 vote, meaning its chance of final passage is very slim. The vote was straight party-line, with most of the Republicans on the panel opposing the bill because it would carve out an exemption for the beleaguered U.S. auto manufacturers to own ILCs. Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, the chairman of the banking panel, said to bar the American automakers would put them at a competitive disadvantage to foreign automakers who own their own finance companies.
Apparently at the behest of the banking lobby, Sen. Michael Crapo (R-Idaho) proposed an amendment that would have added several attractive provisions for banks and thrifts and a few smaller ones for credit unions. Both CUNA and NAFCU told Crapo and his colleagues they opposed the bank-favored bid. Crapo agreed to pull it at the last moment, but not before Dodd agreed to find another way to move regulatory relief for banks and credit unions.
Brad Thaler, senior lobbyist for NAFCU, said it was glad to revive interest in regulatory relief, but was opposed to the effort because it lacked major credit union priorities central to CURIA, including enactment of risk-based capital for credit unions, raising of the limits on member business loans and the expansion of underserved expansions for community chartered credit unions.
“We’re glad that Senator Dodd agreed to try to find other vehicles to move regulatory relief,” Thaler told The Credit Union Journal yesterday. “We’ll keep trying to find other opportunities to move these issues through Congress.”
