Newsroom

At the start of this year, NAFCU outlined five priorities that would drive the association's focus on ensuring regulatory and legislative environments in which credit unions can grow and thrive. These guiding principles led to many wins for the industry, including a slowdown in American with Disabilities Act (ADA) lawsuits along with several court victories, delay in NCUA's risk-based capital (RBC) rule and clarity on the current expected credit loss (CECL) standard.

Here are NAFCU's five legislative and regulatory priorities for this year and the wins the industry and NAFCU achieved throughout 2018.

1. Growth: NAFCU supports a regulatory environment that allows credit unions to grow.

• preserved the credit union tax exemption despite bankers' attacks;
• maintained credit unions' access to the secondary mortgage market as housing finance reform talks continued;
• stood by the NCUA as its field-of-membership rule is challenged by bankers; and
• secured a one-year delay of the NCUA's RBC rule – a two-year delay of the rule passed the House three times and was introduced in the Senate at NAFCU's leading.

2. Regulatory relief: NAFCU supports appropriate, tailored regulation for credit unions and relief from growing regulatory burdens.

• defended credit unions facing meritless lawsuits related to unclear website accessibility requirements under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which has led to a slowdown in lawsuits against the industry;
• attended meetings and pressed for more guidance on the Financial Accounting Standards Board's (FASB) current expected credit loss (CECL) standard;
• pressed for the creation of a Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) single, reassigned numbers database to aid in the elimination of illegal robocalls and a safe harbor for inadvertent calls made because of database errors;
• secured the credit union industry's first meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House in February, which helped ensure support of the NAFCU-backed Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (S. 2155), which was enacted in May; and
• testified before a House Financial Services subcommittee in June about the need for further guidance on regulators' risk-management expectations and suggested a safe harbor be put in place to ease credit unions' filing compliance burdens with Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and anti-money laundering (AML) requirements.

3. Fair playing field: NAFCU supports a fair playing field.

• urged banking regulators to withdraw a proposed rulemaking that would loosen Volcker rule requirements on big banks;
• spurred conversation on Capitol Hill about enacting a modernized Glass-Steagall Act in order to protect consumers  from banks that are still too big to fail;
• led House and Senate conferees to drop a provision in the fiscal year 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would have required the Department of Defense (DoD) to allow all banks to operate rent free on military installations, disadvantaging credit unions;
• opposed Congressional efforts to have credit unions wrapped into the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA); and
• advocated for appropriate regulation of fintech companies.

4. Transparency: NAFCU supports government transparency and accountability.

• talked with Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection Director Kathy Kraninger on credit unions' top priorities that specifically concern the bureau; and
• testified before the NCUA Board urging the agency to pursue continued efficiency in its annual budget.

5. Strong NCUA: NAFCU supports a strong, independent NCUA as the primary regulator for credit unions.

• continued to advocate for the NCUA to be the primary regulator and examiner of credit unions; and
• maintained the NCUA's independent structure.

These legislative and regulatory wins – along with the association testifying before Congress 12 times this session – have put credit unions in a strong position to see even more progress in 2019 on a number of issues, including housing finance reform, data security and BSA relief.