WASHINGTON-A vote on a bill to increase the member business loan cap for credit unions could be held as early as this week in the Senate.
The big question, however, is what form such a bill will take, as that will likely have a significant effect on the outcome.
Prior to the Senate's recess Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) had promised to hold a vote on the proposed plan to raise the limit on MBLs to 27.5% of assets. Credit unions have been pressing Congress for some sort of increase for more than a decade.
The potential for a vote had the nation's banking lobby out in force last week. The lobbying was so strong that, in response to a piece created by the American Bankers Association called "Talking Points against S. 2231, a Bill to Expand Credit Unions' Business Lending Authority," CUNA moved to create what it called a "pop-up rebuttal." That rebuttal took the ABA piece and superimposed over it various pop-up balloons that featured responses to the bankers' talking points.
Among those ABA talking points were "Only one-half of one percent of all credit unions would receive any benefit from a change in the law," and, "99.5% of the credit union industry has excess business lending capacity than is being used today."
"The legislation would harm community banks and local lending efforts," said the American Bankers Association, which earlier this year was successful in removing from the JOBS Act language to increase the MBL cap.
The CUNA response can be found at CUJournal.com.
In a statement to American Banker, an affiliate of Credit Union Journal that is not affiliated with the trade association, James Ballentine, EVP-congressional affairs with the ABA said, "What I'm very certain of is that the credit unions have tried to emotionally hijack members of Congress in an election year under the guise of creating jobs."
The Key Issue
The key issue now is what form the Senate vote takes. Should the MBL bill come to the Senate floor and pass as a standalone bill, the banking industry has expressed confidence it will be able to kill the legislation in the House. But should the MBL language be attached to another bill, the banks could face a much more difficult time defeating it.
The bill is sponsored by Sen. Mark Udall (D-UT).
