ALEXANDRIA, Va.—NCUA’s field of membership proposal had drawn 10,500 comments by Tuesday morning, NCUA reported.
CUToday.info reported Monday that FOM comments by Friday had already shattered the previous record high of 3,100 comments for the Member Business Lending rule last year.
The comment period for the FOM rule closed Monday night. And as was the case with MBL, a sizeable number of banker letters are included in the entries. According to NCUA, banker entries accounted for about one third of the FOM comments by Friday.
Sources indicated that CUNA may have rallied credit unions last week to submit even more comments. CUNA’s Chief Advocacy Officer Ryan Donovan said the trade association’s read of FOM comment submissions is that the letters have always been more than two to one in favor of the proposal.
NAFCU has been rallying CU support for the proposal, as well.
“We believe the volume of responses from credit unions underscores the significance of this issue,” said NAFCU president and CEO Dan Berger. “While this is a good step forward, more needs to be done. We are committed to continuing to work on this vital issue.”
CUNA chief advocacy officer Ryan Donovan Monday said CUNA has been very pleased with the credit union responses so far.
“We have observed a very strong response from the credit union system–from credit unions and from members. We think this will be very helpful to the agency as they finalize a final rule, and we will encourage them to do that as quickly and prudently as possible,” Donovan said.