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NAFCU, DCUC call on Congress to pass a ‘clean’ NDAA
As Congress prepares final action on the fiscal year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), NAFCU joined with the Defense Credit Union Council (DCUC) to call on both chambers to pass a “clean” NDAA and reject amendments that stand to place new burdens and hardships on credit unions.
Specifically, they reiterated strong opposition against any effort to attach the Credit Card Competition Act to the NDAA - or any amendment to commission an interchange fee study.
“The Credit Card Competition Act would extend debit interchange routing requirements to also cover credit cards, which would function as a backdoor price control on credit card transactions and would affect financial institutions of all sizes, regardless of the proposed exemption, and could greatly increase fraud costs as merchants select cheaper but less secure networks to process transactions,” explained the trades.
In addition, they noted that any inclusion of a provision to grant the NCUA with expanded examination authority over credit union third-party vendors must be rejected. “[The] legislation has not been vetted by the Senate Banking Committee and the NCUA has not laid out any limits to the new spending or supervisory authority it would entail,” they warned.
Of note, in a recent American Banker article examining this issue, NAFCU Vice President of Legislative Affairs Brad Thaler explained that, while NAFCU believes in a strong NCUA, the association also believes that the NCUA “should stay focused on where its expertise lies – regulating credit unions.”
NAFCU will continue to keep credit unions updated on any movement on the NDAA via NAFCU Today.