ARLINGTON, Va.—NAFCU has sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission stating the trade association supports the position the American Bankers Association shared in an August petition sent to the agency.
NAFCU Senior Vice President of Government Affairs and General Counsel Carrie Hunt’s letter addressed the ABA petition filed on August 8, that requests reconsideration of the July 18, 2015 Declaratory Ruling and Order.
In the letter, Hunt referenced the petition from the ABA seeking clarification of the agency’s interpretation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), which includes an exemption for “free end user calls” by financial institutions. She noted that NAFCU agrees with the ABA that financial institutions may still be effectively prevented from making time-sensitive communications to members about identity theft, data security breaches and money transfer notifications, under the FCC’s interpretation of the exemption.
“Unfortunately, the FCC’s Order will make it more difficult for credit unions and other financial institutions to contact their members about identity theft or data breaches,” Hunt wrote. “As the ABA outlines in its Petition, this exemption improperly limits the exempted calls to those sent to customer-provided mobile contact numbers.”
Hunt also emphasized that the FCC’s distinctions between mobile and residential phones is outdated, and she noted that regulations with such a distinction will have the unintended consequence of reducing consumers’ access to vital financial information if they rely on mobile phones.