WASHINGTON—NAFCU emphasized that even as the April 27 deadline for comments on the revised risk-based capital proposal has arrived, the trade association continues to talk with legislators about the negative impact it believes the rule will have on CUs and the legislative solution that will be required.
“We are sharing our concerns, and the concerns of credit unions, with the latest proposal,” said NAFCU Vice President of Legislative Affairs Brad Thaler, who stressed that NAFCU’s position remains that NCUA should simply withdraw the RBC proposal.
In other matters on Capitol Hill, NAFCU said it continues to talk to lawmakers about the need for greater data security standards. Last week NAFCU President and CEO Dan Berger testified during the Committee on Small Business hearing titled, Small Business, Big Threat: Protecting Small Businesses from Cyber Attacks.
Two cybersecurity bills passed the House of Representatives last week, while another cyberthreat bill works its way through the Senate.
Thursday the House passed the National Cybersecurity Protection Advancement Act of 2015 (H.R. 1731) by a 355-63 vote. Wednesday the House passed the Protecting Cyber Networks Act (H.R. 1560). H.R. 1560 would allow enhanced sharing of information about cybersecurity threats, while H.R. 1731 amends 2002's Homeland Security Act to enhance multi-directional sharing of cybersecurity risk information.
A similar cybersecurity bill was submitted last week in the Senate. Sens. Tom Carper (D-DE) and Roy Blunt (R-MO) introduced the Data Security Act of 2015, legislation that would establish strong and uniform national data security and breach notification standards for electronic data.
CUNA has issued an action alert that urges credit union advocates to reach out to Capitol Hill regarding their concerns over data breaches, which the trade association hopes will help push the cyber bills through Congress. Richard Gose, SVP of political affairs, pointed out that so far this year CUNA has generated more than 350,000 letters to Congress through credit unions and their members on the data breach issue.
“Hopefully we will have even more coming after this call to action has been out or a while,” said Gose.