WASHINGTON— America’s Credit Unions President/CEO Scott Simpson said Monday he came away from Friday’s roundtable with House Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill “optimistic” that credit unions will remain part of ongoing discussions around regulatory relief, including the question of parity with community banks.
Speaking during ACU’s Monday morning press call, Simpson said the issue of whether credit unions will be included alongside banks in any relief package was directly raised during the Little Rock meeting, which ACU and the Cornerstone Credit Union League hosted with Arkansas credit unions.
“We absolutely had the conversation,” Simpson said. “He was amenable to further dialogue and looking for off-ramps to continue as this moves its way through the process.”
Simpson cautioned that any final legislative package remains fluid, saying “packaging legislation is an art form,” and that ACU will need to keep working with Hill. But he added that the exchange reinforced his view that the chairman is open to continued engagement as credit unions push to ensure they are not left out of any relief extended to community banks.
The Friday roundtable brought together Arkansas credit unions representing roughly 380,000 members in the state and focused on regulatory relief, fraud, data security and broader credit union priorities. Simpson said Monday the strongest takeaway was the value of lawmakers hearing directly from credit union leaders in their home states, calling those face-to-face conversations “a powerful form of political expression” that is “irreplaceable.”