Credit unions

San Francisco has an Office of Financial Empowerment that oversees all sorts of programs designed to help residents handle their money better and recruits banks and credit unions to participate. As other cities adopt a similar approach, more financial institutions have an opportunity to get involved.

WASHINGTON — Congress should consider streamlining the financial regulatory structure and give the Financial Stability Oversight Council broader authority to respond to systemic risks, according to a Government Accountability Office report published this week.

Credit unions have a dominant auto lending presence in the West, boasting as much as a 50% market share in some areas. Credit Union Journal explores what is driving that dominance.

The Independent Community Bankers of America and the Credit Union National Association sent a joint letter to the Financial Accounting Standards Board urging changes to a proposal to alter how financial institutions establish reserves for loan losses.

Wings Financial Credit Union has scored a deal to take over a branch from U.S. Bank at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

The chairmen of the House and Senate banking committees appear to agree that banks that hold higher capital should get a significant break on other regulatory requirements. But the odds of enacting a bill this year remain long.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling signaled an aggressive assault on the Dodd-Frank Act on Tuesday, outlining a bill that would allow banks to be released from some of the 2010 reform law's regulations and Basel III requirements if they hold sufficient capital.

Three-fourths of House lawmakers signed a bipartisan letter that calls on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to take more steps to carve out community banks and credit unions from onerous regulations. But will it make a difference?

It could take months before lawmakers approve a successor for departing NCUA Chairman Debbie Matz, and industry observers believe issues like supplemental capital could be on hold until that replacement takes office.

United Federal Credit Union's deal to merge with Lake Michigan Credit Union fell through, but it has acquired an executive from its larger rival.

There are good, bad and ugly stories about how marijuana entrepreneurs deal with taxes and other financial management issues while having little access to banking services.

Preparing for the inevitable future credit crisis by setting aside more loss reserves is a step toward avoiding government bailouts.

The top leaders of the National Credit Union Administration said this week that they support an alternative option that would allow credit unions to merge some operations — a prospect that is alarming banking industry representatives.

Instead of focusing on the effect of swipe fee rules on banks and credit unions, retailers should ask why the Durbin amendment hasn’t produced the promised cost savings for their consumers.

Cornerstone Community Credit Union in Des Moines, Iowa, has partnered with the online marketplace lender LendingPoint to provide loan products for its members that struggle to qualify for traditional financing.

The NCUA's decision to expand member business lending has sparked a renewed effort by banks to press lawmakers to eliminate credit unions' tax-exempt status. The NCUA's board meeting also ended with awkward acrimony between two of its own members.

Not only does evidence point to small banks escaping interchange restrictions — as Congress intended — but there are also signs smaller institutions are gaining retail market share because of the exemption.

The NCUA's plan to expand credit unions' business-lending powers generated more than 3,000 comment letters, mostly from bankers urging a "no" vote. But the agency's board is expected to stick by its original proposal.

Home equity portfolios have shrunk at banks, but credit unions and nonbank lenders like loanDepot helped fuel the surge in home equity lines last year.

Bankers, irate with the NCUA's plan to expand field-of-membership for certain credit unions, are flooding the agency with comment letters. The NCUA has received 10,500 total letters, or more than triple the previous record for such responses.