WASHINGTON—The CFPB is being urged to preserve credit unions' ability to provide remittance services by reinstating the temporary exception under equivalent, statutory authority.
In a letter to the agency, NAFCU Senior Counsel for Research and Policy Andrew Morris also called on the CFPB to increase the safe harbor transfer threshold in response to the Bureau's request for information (RFI) regarding its remittance rule.
NAFCU noted it has long expressed concerns about the rule's highly burdensome compliance costs and previously urged the Bureau to exempt credit unions from the rule.
In his letter, Morris notes that "since the 2012 Remittance Rule took effect, credit unions have incurred significant costs associated with the rule’s complex disclosure requirements and error resolution framework, and many have ceased offering remittances as a result."
Other Recommendations
Morris also recommended for the Bureau to reconstitute the temporary exception allowing insured depository institutions to provide estimates of exchange rates and fees set by third parties to prevent "negative impact on credit unions’ ability to continue providing affordable remittance services."
NAFCU asks that the Bureau increase the rule's current safe harbor threshold to at least 1,000 transfers to "improve consumer access to affordable remittance services at credit unions, regardless of whether the Bureau determines that the substance of § 1005.32(a)(1) (the temporary exception) can be saved." To provide alternative relief, the letter also requests that the Bureau consider adopting a credit union exception to the Remittance Rule.