In 2015, NAFCU opened its membership to federally insured, state-chartered credit unions – a development that permits us to help all federally insured credit unions with the issues that impact them at the federal level.
Numerous NAFCU member witnesses and association President and CEO Dan Berger testified before House and Senate committees on the need for regulatory relief for credit unions and national data security standards for retailers. This testimony "on the record" often becomes the basis for future legislation.
NAFCU advanced numerous initiatives in its ongoing efforts to champion credit unions' interests with lawmakers and regulators. Our hard-working advocacy team in Washington, combined with your assistance, helped achieve some major progress on critical credit union issues with legislators, with the administration and with federal regulatory agencies.
Here are a few of the highlights:
- Credit unions' tax exemption, NAFCU's top priority, endured. Although there were early talks in the year of broad, bipartisan tax reform, no bill altering credit unions' exemption was put forward.
- NAFCU spearheaded the effort to work toward the introduction of bipartisan legislation (the "Data Security Act," S. 961 introduced in April and H.R. 2205 introduced in May) to ensure retailers have robust data security standards like those applied to credit unions.
- In April, the NAFCU-sought S. 924, "National Credit Union Administration Budget Transparency Act," was introduced to make certain NCUA holds public budget hearings and publishes its draft budget. Identical legislation, H.R. 2287, followed in May.
- In June, NCUA proposed a member business lending rule change that would allow credit unions to implement a principles-based risk management policy for commercial and business lending activities.
- In October, the Senate passed the NAFCU-backed S. 754, the "Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act" (CISA), a bill that would encourage faster sharing of cyber-threat information among the business and government sectors.
- Also in October, the association's diligence on NCUA's risk-based capital rule garnered us some valuable revisions from the agency's initial proposed rule. (Our next step is to move the debate to Congress to seek true capital reform.)
- In November, NCUA proposed to reform longstanding, regulatory field-of-membership requirements that incorporated many of our suggestions and retain population caps on community charters and rural areas, fulfilling the agency's mandate to ensure that credit unions' fields of membership are "well-defined" and "local." These proposed reforms are currently out for a 60-day comment period.
- The Senate Banking Committee advanced a comprehensive regulatory relief bill this spring.
- The House acted on a number of regulatory relief measures throughout the year. In December, the multi-year highway bill, H.R. 22, reported out by House and Senate conferees included the NAFCU-sought amendment to provide credit unions relief from duplicative privacy notices (H.R.601) and certain qualified-mortgage requirements. It also included NAFCU-backed H.R. 1259, the "Helping Expand Lending Practices in Rural Communities Act," which would be helpful to credit unions as they deal with the CFPB's definition of "rural area," particularly as it relates to the ability-to-repay mortgage rule. The legislation was ultimately passed and signed by the President.
Looking Ahead
While we have made significant progress, our work is far from over.
NAFCU will continue to underscore the importance of credit unions and the value their tax exemption brings to our economy. This is particularly important given coming changes in Congress and the White House after next year's election.
In 2016, we will continue to push our message to Congress and regulators when it comes to the overwhelming regulatory burden imposed on the credit union industry. NAFCU is also working to mitigate the potential negative impact on credit unions from CFPB's regulatory efforts on payday lending, arbitration and prepaid cards. With lawmakers, we are continuing to push for a change to the Federal Credit Union Act to create a fair, balanced capital system that works for all credit unions.
Based on NAFCU's continued appeals for greater accountability and transparency at NCUA, congressional oversight of the agency has been solid. For the first time since 2011, NCUA Board Chairman Debbie Matz testified before the House Financial Services Committee in July on the budget process and other vital industry issues. Going forward, NAFCU will maintain its pursuit of greater budget transparency.
NAFCU will maintain its efforts to establish national data security standards for retailers to help ensure the safety of credit union members' sensitive personal and financial data.
While CFPB's Truth in Lending Act and Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (TILA/RESPA) integrated mortgage disclosure rule took effect this year, NAFCU will continue to monitor its full impact on credit unions and their members in the new year. We will also keep a watchful eye on NCUA's asset securitization proposal, which is expected to be released by February.
Over the coming year, I look forward to continuing my role as chairman and part of NAFCU's CEO-driven board to ensure a positive legislative and regulatory climate for credit unions and, by extension, credit union members.
NAFCU remains dedicated to providing the very best in advocacy, education and compliance assistance. I look ahead with great optimism to what we can accomplish working together in the New Year.
Ed Templeton is president and CEO of SRP Federal Credit Union and chair of NAFCU.
