WASHINGTON – Hundreds of amendments are being considered as Senate leaders prepare for Tuesday’s expected opening of debate on the bank reform bill, with the credit union lobby on the lookout for chances to add some of their own priorities as the bill moves forward.
Hundreds of interest groups were lobbying over the weekend to add or kill amendments to the massive bill – which now runs more than 1,600 pages. Among them are bids to break up the big banks, to regulate credit card interchange, to introduce risk-based insurance assessments for federally insured institutions, to audit the Federal Reserve, and bar investment and commercial banks from engaging in proprietary trading.
"Though we have had some success limiting hostile provisions throughout the entire negotiations, it truly remains an uphill battle to get additional pro-credit union amendments in,” said Dan Berger, chief lobbyist for NAFCU, who was working over the weekend to help ensure that a variety of amendments that would adversely impact credit unions were not added. Among them are new efforts to cap interest rates on credit cards and a provision that would give the Federal Reserve the authority to regulate interchange fees on credit and debit cards. Credit unions also are concerned with a so-called skin-in-the-game provision that would require all mortgage originators to retain 5% of their loans when selling them on the secondary market. It was included in the bill that passed the House in March.
But the NAFCU lobbyist was optimistic that an opportunity might arise that would allow credit union backers to offer a long-sought provision that would increase the member business loan ceiling or one to allow credit unions to raise supplementary capital.
“This process will likely take at least a couple weeks to unfold so we will keep the pressure on regarding MBL and supplementary capital,” Berger told Credit Union Journal over the weekend.
CUNA lobbyists are less optimistic about adding the MBL or supplementary capital amendments to the bill but are continuing to push to exempt the last three credit unions – the three with more than $10 billion in assets – from examination under the proposed consumer financial protection agency.
“We do not believe that the Senate is going to go there [MBLs],” said John Magill, chief lobbyist for CUNA. “It’s already cluttered enough with items that are already out there.”
Magill said CUNA believes the best bet to advance the MBL bill may come later in the congressional session after the heated vote on the controversial reform bill is completed.
The main focus of the bill remains to create a consumer financial protection agency, to develop a resolution system for big financial institutions that pose a risk to the entire financial system and to regulate financial derivatives. The bill also would regulate Wall Street rating agencies and give shareholders some say on executive compensation, among other provisions.
