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Thursday, NAFCU Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Ann Petros and Senior Counsel for Research and Policy Andrew Morris met with Treasury Deputy Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions Felton Booker and the agency’s financial institution policy team. During the meeting, the group discussed a variety of important credit union issues.

The group highlighted Treasury’s November fintech report, which assessed the impact of fintechs in the financial services space. In the report, Treasury noted that fintechs needed proper oversight to protect consumers from fraud and other risks. The CFPB issued a proposed rule in December that would require certain nonbank entities to report the existence of such orders to the bureau through a publicly accessible registry.

NAFCU has requested the bureau to enhance its supervision of nonbank fintechs to better level the playing field with credit unions and coordinate with other regulators to maintain competition and ensure the availability of credit union services.

Additionally, the group discussed the Treasury’s February proposal to require financial institutions use the Treasury Check Verification System, or a similar authorized system, to verify that Treasury checks are both authentic and valid.

NAFCU also expressed concerns to the Treasury regarding the CDFI Fund. The fund announced earlier this month that it anticipates accepting new certification applications this fall. Originally, the fund planned to begin accepting applications in April after instituting a blackout period in October 2022. NAFCU has raised concerns to the CDFI Fund and lawmakers that the changes to the Certification Application and process will restrict access to the fund and its resources.

The group also discussed the Greenhouse Gas Reduction (GHGR) Fund. Petros wrote to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) earlier this month to request clarification that credit unions can participate in grant opportunities under the fund.

NAFCU previously engaged the EPA on this issue, calling on the agency to allow credit unions to obtain funds through the GHGR Fund to support projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution in low-income and disadvantaged communities. In response to inaccurate and misleading comments regarding the agency’s ability to distribute money from the fund to credit unions, Petros countered with a legal analysis that indicated otherwise.

NAFCU will continue to engage with regulators, lawmakers, and other stakeholders to ensure the strength of the credit union industry.