WASHINGTON – Senior members of the House Financial Services Committee agreed last night to combine the credit union regulatory relief bill with the bank relief package, in order to ease opposition from either of the foes to passage of their respective bills.
The new bill, called the Credit Union, Bank and Thrift Regulatory Relief Act of 2008, is expected to be voted by the full House as early as next week.
The credit union portion of the bill is styled after the so-called CU Regulatory Relief Act, or CURRA, and does not have the credit union priorities of a risk-based capital system or an increase in the limit on member business loans. Those two provisions are central to CURIA, the CU Regulatory Improvements Act, which has languished in the House for five years.
NAFCU said last night it was pleased with the apparent progress of the bill. "While this bill does not have much needed provisions from CURIA such as prompt corrective action reform and member business lending cap modification, it is a first step toward more meaningful regulatory relief for credit unions," said Brad Thaler, senior lobbyist.
The bill would allow credit unions to retain their select groups after converting to community charter; exempt credit unions from the pre-merger notification requirements of the Clayton Antitrust Act; increase the amount individual credit unions can invest in a CUSO from the current 1% of capital to 3%; allow NCUA, instead of Congress, to determine permissible investments for credit unions.
It would also give NCUA greater flexibility in setting the annual interest rate ceiling and ease credit union participation in the U.S. Small Business Administration's Section 504 program
The combined reg relief bill was sponsored by Pennsylvania’s Paul Kanjorski and California’s Ed Royce, the two main sponsors of CURRA and CURIA, and by Dennis Moore of Kansas, chief sponsor of the bank relief bill.
