WASHINGTON -
The Senate panel, which has slowed legislative trickle as its chairman, Christopher Dodd of Connecticut is running for President, invited CUNA and NAFCU and other trade associations to recommend regulatory provisions that may be rolled back. However, because the same committee recently completed work on a regulatory relief bill in the last Congress, a new bill is expected to be slow in taking shape.
Both CUNA and NAFCU submitted some of the same suggestions to the panel that are not only in the CU Regulatory Improvements Act, but were also in the original regulatory relief bill in the last Congress, but were eventually eliminated.
They include: enactment of a risk-based capital system for credit unions; an increase on the current limits on member business lending; and an expansion of credit unions' ability to serve underserved communities, so that community charters may participate (the ability to do so was struck down by a federal court at the behest of the bankers three years ago). CUNA and NAFCU have been lobbying on the first two provisions for the past six years, at least.
Meantime, the House Financial Services Committee, where CURIA has been introduced, has shown no intention yet of holding a hearing on the bill, as larger matters, including the crisis in the mortgage market, have taken front stage. Leaders of the panel have made it clear they do not plan to pass CURIA, with its five major provisions, including the three mentioned here, but may pass one or more of the provisions as part of a larger package.
