WASHINGTON—Ahead of CUNA’s Governmental Affairs Conference (GAC) next week, CUNA Chief Advocacy Officer Ryan Donovan has written to all 535 Congressional offices.
“From modernizing the Federal Credit Union Act to serving rural and urban banking deserts, America’s credit unions are ready to find solutions that allow us to step in where others are leaving consumers behind,” Donovan wrote.
In the letter, Donovan linked to CUNA’s policy priorities, which it said is designed to help credit unions continue to improve financial well-being. Among the priorities cited:
- Relaxing field-of-membership restrictions to ensure all federal credit unions can fill banking deserts and better reach underserved and marginalized communities
- Lifting arbitrary business lending caps to allow credit unions to further aid local small businesses, including family farms and ranches
- Allowing credit unions to service loans with terms longer than 15 years to create better student, agricultural, and business loans for consumers
- Allowing credit unions to govern branch safety SUPPORT H.R. 2311, S. 1767
- Allow credit unions to dedicate more time and resources to their members’ financial well-being by setting their board meeting schedule
- Preserving payments and access to credit
- Prevent government duplication of credit union services
- Protecting small businesses’ access to private-sector financing through trusted community lenders with proven track records
- Reforming the CFPB leadership structure
The letter also linked to CUNA’s webpage with state-specific information on what CUNA said is the “credit union difference” and the resulting member benefits.