Ryan Donovan, CUNA
WASHINGTON—Noting the trade association had a trio of top legislative priorities in 2015, CUNA reflected on what was accomplished during the last 12 months.
“We set out at the beginning of the year with three advocacy goals: preserve the CU tax status, stop merchant data breaches, and reduce CU barriers,” said CUNA Chief Advocacy Officer Ryan Donovan.
Addressing risk-based capital, Donovan reiterated CUNA’s position that the final rule from NCUA remains a “solution in search of a problem,” but he also conceded that it is a “greatly improved” version over the first two proposals.
“The agency is also close to finalizing a member business lending rule that removes most of the regulatory burden associated with CU small business lending programs, increasing their capacity to serve their members,” said Donovan. “And, more small credit unions will see greater regulatory accommodation through the agency raising the ceiling for the definition of small CUs to $100 million in assets.”
Significant CU Reg Relief
Donovan pointed to what is informally known in Washington as the “Highway Bill,” as containing the most significant regulatory relief for credit unions in a decade, as among the year’s victories. The bill, signed into law by President Obama in early December, modernized privacy notification requirements, gave privately insured CUs access to the Federal Home Loan Bank system, and reduced regulatory burden for credit unions serving rural areas.
Twenty pieces of CU-supported legislation moved through the House Financial Services Committee and 15 credit union provisions were included in the Senate Banking Committee regulatory relief bill, Donovan emphasized.
While not all of the provisions made it to the final omnibus spending bill that was signed by Obama, Donovan said the work sets CUs up for regulatory relief measures in the current Congress that continues into 2016, and beyond.
“We kept some bad things from happening this year, including preventing Congress from giving NCUA the authority to examine third-party vendors, keeping Congress from imposing new tax reporting requirements, and we further delayed the implementation of the TILA/RESPA integrated disclosure requirements by two months to give credit unions and their vendors more time to comply,” said Donovan.
NCUA Budget Reviewed
Donovan noted that for the first time in several years Congress held an oversight hearing of NCUA’s budget, making a commitment to hold similar hearings more regularly going forward.
“We won House committee passage of the data security bill, marking the first time a Congressional committee has endorsed our view that merchants who accept cards for payments should be held to the same security standards as the financial institutions that issue them,” said Donovan.
“And we once again protected the credit union tax status at federal and state levels, a feat that must not be taken for granted given the budget pressure that both the federal government and many state governments face today,” he said.
Donovan said the trade association advanced the notion that NCUA exams should be less frequent—it wants an 18-month exam cycle--and more efficient, and that CUNA will continue to push those points with the agency.
“We made lot of progress in removing barriers for credit unions and improving the environment in which they operate,” said Donovan. “But the job is not done, and next year will be short legislative year—but a crucial one for advocacy.”
In addition to continuing efforts with NCUA to “bring across the line” final field of membership and member business lending modernization rules, Donovan said CUNA will be focused on the CFPB and its attention to payday lending.
“And the Department of Labor will try to finalize the fiduciary rule and overtime rule before this administration leaves office, and we will keep up our efforts there,” said Donovan.
He added that attention will continue to be paid to the FCC “robo-call order,” and a great deal of effort will continue to be given to merchant data breaches.
“Lastly, we know banks will not stop going state to state to try to take away the credit union option for consumers by imposing new taxes on credit unions,” said Donovan. “We will continue to fight alongside our league partners next year wherever that battle takes us.”