With Congress’s August recess in the rear view mirror, legislators have a full plate in the week ahead. While much of the nation's attention will be fixated on the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, credit unions have plenty to keep their collective eye on.
Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing
All eyes are on the four-day Supreme Court confirmation hearing of Brett Kavanaugh. What kicked off at 9:30 a.m. on Monday morning quickly unwound as Democrats attended in “protest” after receiving 42,000 documents just hours prior to the hearing.
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), who has been involved in nine Supreme Court hearings, said in a news conference before the hearing she had "never had a hearing like this where documents are so difficult to get." Other senators, including Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Cory Booker (D-NJ), echoed that the meeting should not proceed until proper time was allocated for document review.
Principal concerns surrounding the documents center on incomplete production and missing pages, alleged executive privilege and recipient delay.
Though credit unions seldom interweave with the Supreme Court, the next justice could potentially impact future cases that impact credit unions.
The 1998 decision involving the NCUA v. First National Bank & Trust reached the Supreme Court. The result? A ruling that recognized that banks held prudential standing in challenging regulations that permitted CUs to enroll unaffiliated members.
Aside from the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearings regarding Kavanaugh, other legislative items on the week’s agenda include:
- Separate hearings on Wednesday examining the cost of regulation on affordable multifamily development and the future of money, respectively
- On Thursday, the House Financial Services Committee will discuss the lack of government-sponsored enterprise reform and the believed risk it imposes on taxpayers.
Regulatory matters
The week opens with one fewer credit union in the market place, following the National Credit Union Administration’s move late Friday to liquidate NYC-based Melrose Credit Union, with Teachers FCU assuming all of Melrose’s members and shares, along with certain loans and other assets.
The National Credit Union Administration board won’t meet for another two weeks, but the Credit Union National Association this week expects to send the regulator a letter outlining its continued objections to NCUA’s controversial risk-based capital rule. While NCUA has proposed delaying implementation of the rule until January 2020, CUNA is requesting NCUA set the threshold for RBC compliance at $10 billion in assets,
Tech’s big week
The technology sector is also set for a big week, with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey set to appear before various congressional committees to address lawmakers’ concerns about foreign governments using social media platforms to spread misinformation.
From a credit union perspective, the National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions’
Cybersecurity and Payments Committee will meet for an update from the NCUA its the Automated Cybersecurity Examination Tool. Developed in 2017, the tool is expected to enhance NCUA's cybersecurity assessments at credit unions.
Additionally, CUNA is partnering with other financial services trade organizations to draft a white paper exploring how cybercriminals orchestrate ATM attacks and how financial institutions can implement protection mechanisms for their clientele.
