WASHINGTON–It may not be what credit unions wanted to hear, but one senator said there is no chance the Dodd-Frank Act will be repealed, and CUs would be better served by focusing on getting more relief for institutions below $10 billion in assets.
“My commitment as a supporter of Dodd-Frank is to resist efforts to repeal Dodd-Frank,” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) told NAFCU, which opposed that legislation when it was being considered. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t improve it. The focus needs to be on the banks and credit unions under $10 billion and making sure the rules aren’t onerous.”
Brown said he wants to see compliance according to asset tiers and that there is “no reason” Congress can’t do that.
“Want to tier the rules? No reason we can’t do that. You are being held hostage to a partisan agenda,” he said. “You will hear every member say ‘We are with you,’ but they won’t support a bill that does just that. We are not going to repeal Dodd-Frank and we need to focus on areas where we can get consensus.”
Brown said he is “hopeful for a modest Dodd-Frank reform bill” in the current Congress.
Similarly, he said he believes there should be and is common ground in Congress on cybersecurity and data security-related legislation, and that those bills might also move forward.
Brown reiterated his support for credit unions. “You represent the little guy and little woman and you do banking right, and if we’re going to close the gap with the very wealthy it’s important to get them into the financial system,” he said.
After sharing stories related to how lower-income people are trying to get by, Brown added, “I tell these stories because it’s important to realize there are millions of people in our society who live that way, and while we didn’t do Welfare reform very well, what we did do well is to have helped the working poor with the Earned Income Tax Credit. And that’s where you come in. I’ve seen the work you do. CinFed Credit Union (Cincinnati) told me that 10,000 of the 40,000 members have their checking accounts there really just to be able to cash their paychecks. That’s a huge service. You are the ones who save them from the payday lender. I know this isn’t your best profit center and it doesn’t pay the bills, but you serve the community because you are saving people from the downward spiral of payday lending.”