WASHINGTON —In his State of the Union address last night, President Obama touched on a number of issues of relevance to credit unions and financial institutions, including cybercrime, the economy, and fees on large banks.
Whether the plans outlined by the president become reality, however, will be up to a Congress that is now controlled by the opposition party.
One credit union trade group offered praise for the president’s remarks, but also called for changes to laws that create an environment that’s too “constraining.”
In his remarks, the president made numerous references to an improving economy to which few are stronger witnesses than credit unions, which are generally seeing robust lending numbers. He stressed that the rising tide of the economy is not raising all ships, and an overarching theme of the State of the Union address was the need for middle class America to benefit from economic growth.
President Obama formally proposed making community college free for most students, which could affect credit unions that are student lenders should such a proposal ever pass Congress. He also called for new taxes and fees on high-income earners and large financial institutions, those of $50-billion or more, based on the amount of risk held by the institution.
The president said he would veto any attempt to roll back regulations on Wall Street and big banks that came out of the recession.
As expected, the president outlined plans for responding to the numerous high-profile cyberattacks against both government and industry, calling for legislation that would bolster protections against such breaches.
“No foreign nation, no hacker should be able to shut down our networks, steal our trade secrets or invade the privacy of American families, especially our kids,” the president said. “If we don’t act, we’ll leave our nation and our economy vulnerable. If we do, we can continue to protect the technologies that have unleashed untold opportunities for people around the globe.”
NAFCU's Reaction
NAFCU CEO Dan Berger issued a statement after the address saying, “In 2015, NAFCU looks forward to working with the administration and Congress to advance our country’s economic prosperity especially through several key issues that also reflect our priorities for 2015 – including national data security standards for retailers and increased small business lending.
“We welcome President Obama’s call to pass legislation to meet the evolving threat of cyberattacks and combat identity theft,” Berger continued. “Our efforts to establish national data security standards for retailers will help address the president’s call for action to protect our nation from continued vulnerability.”
Berger said that while NAFCU recognizes the importance of consumer protection laws in the wake of the financial crisis, he said “commonsense changes” are needed to “ensure that the provisions enacted to rein in bad actors on Wall Street – through the Dodd-Frank Act or any other measure – not be so constraining that the nation’s credit unions are hampered in their ability to meet the very real financial services needs of their more than 100 million members nationwide.”