WASHINGTON–Ahead of today's House Financial Services Subcommittee hearing on the role CDFIs and MDIs in supporting underserved communities and small businesses, NAFCU Vice President of Legislative Affairs Brad Thaler sent a letter to the subcommittee, saying credit unions are proud of their record of diversity and commitment to "helping the portions of their communities that are most in need with high quality financial products and services.”
The letter notes there were approximately 292 CDFI-designated credit unions at the end of 2019, constituting about 27% of all certified CDFIs.
“[NAFCU] support the Subcommittee’s legislative efforts to ensure that CDFIs and MDIs have the resources they need to serve their communities," wrote Thaler. "Providing $1 billion in emergency funding for the CDFI Fund would allow more credit unions to access monies to provide specific programs to help their members. We are also supportive of Representative Alma Adams’s new proposal to authorize $5 billion to the CDFI Fund for fiscal year 2020, with $2 billion to be reserved for MDIs. Additionally, we urge you to also consider measures to make it easier for credit unions to become a CDFI.”
Regarding the PPP, NAFCU said it is calling on Congress to continue to set aside funds for community financial institutions, as well as consider additional set asides specifically for CDFIs and MDIs in future rounds of funding similar to what was included in the HEROEs Act.
Letter to FCC
Separately, in response to a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FNPR), NAFCU has joined with other financial trade associations to urge the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to "promptly initiate a rulemaking to implement other, critically important provisions of the TRACED Act that require the Commission to address erroneous blocking or mislabeling of legitimate calls."
The FCC in April issued a report and order to require voice service providers to implement STIR/SHAKEN – a caller identification framework meant to target illegal robocalls – by June 30, 2021, and many have already begun to implement the framework.
Earlier this month, NAFCU separately responded to the FNPR, urging the FCC to "ensure complete transparency of call labeling to calling parties, effective redress mechanisms for incorrectly labeled calls and the accurate labeling of a caller's identity."
Concerns Raised
In the joint trades letter, the coalition voiced concerns of legitimate calls being mislabeled and noted "the piecemeal rollout of STIR/SHAKEN means many legitimate calls will not be authenticated and may be adversely labelled and likely go unanswered or even blocked by consumers or their voice providers."
Additionally, NAFCU previously filed a petition and encouraged the FCC it to expedite efforts to ensure financial institutions can contact consumers on matters related to the coronavirus pandemic during the national emergency.