WASHINGTON - The CU lobby had hoped to have its regulatory relief bill-known as CURIA-introduced before CUNA's Government Affairs Conference, but lobbyists were still haggling last week over a single number.
CUNA was still pressing last week to raise the cap on member business loans-set at 12.25% of assets in HR 1151, the landmark 1998 CU Membership Access Act-all the way to 25%, to the consternation of key sponsors of the bill, who had agreed to push for a 20% cap in the last Congress.
NAFCU, which had called on the sponsors to erase the cap-enacted at the prompting of the bankers-altogether, but was willing to settle for the 20% limit, several sources involved in the negotiations over the bill told Credit Union Journal.
The impasse prevented lawmakers from introducing the bill before the GAC, when as many as 4,000 credit union managers and directors will make their annual lobbying pilgrimage to Capitol Hill. Still, lobbyists hope the bill will be introduced as soon as Tuesday or Wednesday when Congress returns from a week's recess, giving the CU activists an opportunity to argue their case during their annual visits to Washington.
The bill is so close that a final draft has even been sent to the House legislative counsel for its review, according to one source involved in the negotiations.
CUNA refused to comment, but has suggested in recent interviews that they settled on the 25% because the savings and loans are asking Congress to raise their own business lending limit to that threshold.
Several credit union supporters in Congress, including Democrat Paul Kanjorski of Pennsylvania, who is drafting the bill, said they support the elimination of the cap, but believe the 20% limit is more palatable under the current political climate (read "the bankers opposition").
The impasse did not stop the bankers from launching a preemptive attack on the credit union bill, with ads in a Capitol Hill newspaper last week calling on Congress to reject CURIA-thus kicking off what promises to be a major fight between the traditional foes. In its ads, the American Bankers Association takes aim at the member business loan issue; stating that credit unions were "chartered to serve people of small means. Yet some are using their tax exemption to finance shopping centers, hotels and other multi-million-dollar corporate projects."
"Given that credit unions have fallen short of their mission, why would Congress expand their ability to finance multi-million dollar projects?" asks the bankers.
Participants in the drafting of the bill, known formally as the CU Regulatory Improvements Act, have all but settled on the four other major provisions: enacting a risk-based capital system for credit unions; allowing federally chartered credit unions to retain their select groups after they convert to community charters; expanding the ability to add underserved communities to all CUs; and requiring at least 20% of members to vote on a conversion to mutual savings bank.
(c) 2007
