WASHINGTON -
CURIA itself has been held up, with key lawmakers insisting the bill has little or no chance of passing as it is, but urging credit unions to seek some of its provisions in other bills.
But with few banking/financial services bills moving to the floor of the House, there are few vehicles to add a CURIA provision.
Despite almost 140 co-sponsors in the House, the Financial Services Committee has yet to hold a hearing on CURIA, meaning any action on the 5-year-old bill will be pushed off well into next year.
In addition, the Senate Banking Committee has just begun a review on a new regulatory relief bill that would include some credit union provisions. But that effort is still in its infancy and probably won't see any action until the next Congress.
CURIA has five major provisions. It would: enact a risk-based capital system for credit unions; extend underserved expansions to community charters (barred by a court action); allow all federal credit unions converting to community charters to retain their select groups; increase the maximum allowable member business loans for a credit union form the current 12.25%; and make it harder for credit unions to convert to mutual savings banks by requiring at least 30% of all members vote on the charter switch.
