WASHINGTON—CUNA has met with the CFPB and NCUA this week to seek support for the petition it filed last week with the Federal Communications Commission regarding the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).
CUNA’s petition, which CUToday.info initially reported here, seeks clarity on how credit unions can engage in consumer-friendly communications with members while remaining in compliance with the TCPA.
The petition proposes two routes for providing credit unions with greater ability to communicate with consumers about information they want and need on their cell phone.
Both letters outline the background of CUNA’s concern with the TCPA, including the confusion it is creating in how credit unions can communicate with members. Each letter summarizes the petition and a copy of the petition itself was attached to each letter.
Each individual letter also outlines how granting the petition would be consistent with each agency’s respective goals, as outlined by guidance and other resources issued in recent years by both NCUA and the CFPB.
CUNA’s petition would facilitate consumer-friendly communications between credit unions and their members, according to the letter sent to NCUA Chairman J. Mark McWatters and board member Rick Metsger.
“Because credit unions are owned by consumers, TCPA compliance and litigations costs fall directly on their shoulders—the very people the TCPA is intended to protect,” the letter to NCUA reads. “It is absurd that credit union members’ assets could be at risk by a credit union attempting, in good faith, to contact members with pro-consumer finance-related and governance communications.”
In the letter to the CFPB Director Richard Cordray, CUNA cited in its petition the bureau’s call for financial institutions to utilize methods such as text messaging to ensure consumers are up to date about vital account information.
“The current TCPA landscape and commission rules make it more difficult—not less—for credit unions to communicate with economically vulnerable members,” the letter to the CFPB reads. “If the FCC grants this petition, it would substantially assist credit unions in facilitating beneficial financial communications with their distressed members, consistent with the CFPB’s recommendations.”
Separately, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai has been confirmed by the Senate to a new five-year term on the commission by a vote of 52-41.
NAFCU met with Pai last year, before he was named chairman, to discuss the FCC's Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) order on autodialed phone calls. The association said it is concerned about the order’s restrictive exemption for “free end user calls,” its overly broad definition of “automatic telephone dialing systems” and its antiquated distinction between mobile and landline phones.
Pai has served on the commission since 2012 and was named chairman by President Trump in January. NAFCU President and CEO Dan Berger, in a letter congratulating him, urged Pai to "take steps to fix the injustices caused by this Order and safeguard the original purpose of the TCPA."
In September 2015, NAFCU entered a lawsuit challenging the FCC’s TCPA order. Oral arguments were heard in the case in October 2016 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit; the court could issue a decision at any time, NAFCU noted.