I always like to make a resolution at the beginning of every year. The New Year is a perfect time to reflect on accomplishments and achievements, as well as places for improvement.
2015 was truly an exciting and productive year as we made much progress toward removing barriers for credit unions and improving the environment in which they operate. I have no doubt our successes are due to all of us working together: CUNA, leagues and credit unions. And I strongly believe the future will hold more advocacy success as we remain committed to interdependence while evolving to meet the needs of our movement.
After much thought and consideration, my New Year's resolution is for CUNA to be a stronger organization, uniting our goals together with leagues and credit unions to deliver greater value, accountability and advocacy success. The CUNA/league system's purpose must be to support, protect, unify and advance the credit union movement so that credit unions can grow and succeed in being Americans best financial partner. 2016 is upon us and much is in store for the credit union movement.
Advocacy remains our No. 1 job at CUNA. In 2016 our advocacy goals are focused on reducing the regulatory burden facing credit unions; expanding consumer and small business access to credit unions; engaging in the development of public policy related to payments and data security; and preserving favorable tax treatment of credit unions.
We are working on a number of important issues in Congress, NCUA, CFPB and many other agencies and groups. Three of the biggest pieces of regulation we're focused on with NCUA are field of membership, member business lending modernization and an examination cycle that is less frequent, more efficient and fairer. These issues heavily impact our industry and we will need to work together to see them through.
The CFPB is set to propose new regulations on payday lending and overdraft protection this year. We have had many discussions with the bureau on these issues but we will need to work together to intensify our efforts and advance the notion of the credit union difference. The Department of Labor will try to finalize the fiduciary rule and the overtime rule. The FCC's Robocall Order will continue to adversely impact credit unions and we will keep up the fight in the courts and Congress.
We also have our work cut out for us at the state level. The banks will continue to go state by state to try to take away the credit union option for consumers by imposing new taxes on credit unions – it's quite frankly a backdoor tax on consumers. We will remain vigilant by aggressively refuting these baseless attacks and heading them off as we work to set the record straight about the banks and their records.
While this will be a short legislative year due to the elections, there is much on the horizon for legislators both in Washington and back home. All of us in our movement, at CUNA and the leagues and at every credit union, need to be engaged. In D.C., we're focused on regulatory relief and data security. As long as the merchants are held to lower data security standards than credit unions, the threat of major data breaches remains high and we must continue to press Congress to enact a strong data security bill for the benefit of all Americans. While we are, of course, continuing to engage with elected officials for the benefit of credit unions members and regulatory relief, we're also focused on the elections that will be here before we know it.
In this election year, let's all be partisan for credit unions. The CUNA/league system will continue to be one of the most influential and largest political action committees in our nation's capital, let alone in our industry. Our "Strong Credit Unions, Strong Middle Class" campaign is being noticed by presidential candidates. We recently delivered more than 35,000 signatures on petitions to their campaigns and more are coming in every day as the election heats up. Our service projects leading up to the Democratic and Republican conventions this summer will capture the attention of key leaders while adding lasting value to the Philadelphia and Cleveland communities, helping all understand the special commitment we make every day to those we serve.
And, of course, we're focused on making CUNA the best association possible to advocate for credit unions.
This year we are building toward one of the biggest changes at CUNA in 80 years – beginning the process of modernizing our bylaws. The CUNA Board of Directors closed out 2015 by approving pillars that will serve as the basis our trade association, including: committing to interdependence between CUNA and state credit union leagues; modernizing CUNA's membership structure to accommodate choice as well as enhance engagement among and between the association, leagues and credit unions; empowering the board to reduce and establish the dues rate structure; allowing the board flexibility to set its own size, recognizing that this is a trade association board; retaining current voting membership classes while adding flexibility for future possible nonvoting member categories; and retaining current board term limits, officer structure and bylaw-established committees.
All of our membership will have the opportunity to evaluate and vote on these changes this year. Yes, change is all around us – and CUNA is going to be a bigger part of it in this New Year.
My pledge to you is that CUNA will evolve not only in 2016, but well into the future. We will grow, anticipate, understand, and aggressively meet and exceed the expectations of all credit unions. I will continue to look to leagues and credit unions for advice and support as we move forward together.
I hope we can work together to make my 2016 resolution a reality, and I look forward to seeing many of you at the 2016 CUNA GAC next month. Happy New Year!
Jim Nussle is president/CEO of CUNA.
