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Subcommittee Chairman Shelley Moore Capito entered NAFCU's letter on the need for credit union regulatory relief into Wednesday's hearing record.

March 21, 2013 – Credit unions' regulatory burden and NAFCU's letter to lawmakers urging relief were both noted on the record during Thursday's House Financial Services subcommittee hearing on the impact of the Dodd-Frank Act on community banks' regulatory burden.

The only witnesses for the hearing, held by the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, were from the FDIC and the Government Accountability Office, and much of the discussion focused how things like the examination process and the CFPB's qualified mortgage standard affect community banks.

On Wednesday, however, both the subcommittee's ranking member, Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., and Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., pointed to credit unions' regulatory burden during their opening hearing statements, with Meeks adding that credit unions are the only source of mortgage credit for some. Subcommittee Chairman Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., entered NAFCU's letter into the hearing record.

The NAFCU letter, sent by association President and CEO Fred Becker, urged lawmakers' support for a reduction in regulatory burden on the nation's credit unions.

Credit unions have seen their numbers decline by more than 700 since 2009, the year just prior to enactment of the Dodd-Frank Act, Becker noted. He added, "Credit unions didn't cause the financial crisis and shouldn't be caught in the crosshairs of regulations aimed at those entities that did. Unfortunately, that has not been the case thus far." The same quote was picked up Tuesday night by The Hill's Overnight news report.

Wednesday's hearing was the first in a series expected to be held on financial institutions' regulatory burden under the Dodd-Frank Act, Capito said.