WASHINGTON—NAFCU and CUNA have sent letters to Congress on separate legislation related to robocalls and fintechs.
The Stopping Bad Robocalls Act (H.R. 3375) is good but still does not go far enough to protect legitimate businesses, such as credit unions, asserts NAFCU.
"Although this bill is a vast improvement from the original draft, NAFCU and its members remain concerned that some of the bill's language does not go far enough to ensure legitimate, time-sensitive communications are not affected," wrote , NAFCU Vice President of Legislative Affairs Brad Thaler in a letter to the House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Communications & Technology.
NAFCU said the bill does include an improvement that requires the FCC to issue an order on "autodialer" within six months of enactment, an issue on which it has advocated.
Supportive, But…
While NAFCU said it is supportive of a comprehensive safe harbor for callers who use the reassigned numbers database that inadvertently make a call to a reassigned number, Thaler said a section of the bill could pose challenges to credit unions' seeking to make legitimate calls to their members.
"Continued uncertainty regarding provisions of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) has dramatically increased litigation and caused confusion for callers and consumers alike," noted Thaler. "Any language amending the TCPA should clearly recognize the distinction between illegal robocalls and legitimate calls made using an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS or autodialer)."
Separately, CUNA told the Energy and Commerce Committee it also has concerns regarding the growth of illegal robocalls. The challenge is how best to stop illegal calls while allowing legitimate businesses to continue to legally engage with their customers/members, CUNA said. While saying it is appreciative of the bipartisan bill that has been put together and looks forward to working with the Committee to improve the legislation prior to the full committee markup, the trade group said in its current form the bill could prevent credit unions and other legitimate businesses from providing members and customers with critical information regarding their accounts or business relationship. The full letter can be found here.
Letter on Fintech
In a separate letter, NAFCU told Congress that despite its opportunities, fintech "can also present new threats and challenges as entities emerge in an environment that can be unregulated or underregulated,.” NAFCU sent the letter to the House Financial Services Task Force on Financial Technology ahead of a hearing on fintech regulation,
"As such, NAFCU believes that Congress and regulators must ensure that when fintechs compete with regulated financial institutions, they must do so on a level playing field where smart regulations and consumer protections apply to all actors in that space," wrote Brad Thaler, NAFCU's vice president of legislative affairs.
‘Supervisory Gaps’
Thaler noted that many credit unions work with fintech companies to provide better member service as technological capabilities for financial services are now expected by consumers. "However, credit unions are concerned when unregulated fintech companies exploit supervisory gaps to obtain a competitive advantage in the marketplace," he said.
In addition to supervisory gaps, there are data security concerns as fintechs might not be subject to the same cybersecurity examinations as credit unions are under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, according to NAFCU.
The committee last month created two task forces: one on fintech and one on artificial intelligence (AI).
CUNA View
For its part, CUNA said credit unions across the country are embracing and developing technology to deliver essential services to credit union members, including through shared branching.
"To provide this service, credit unions developed technology that allowed credit unions’ computer systems to work together," CUNA said.
CUNA said it supports the innovations brought by the fintech marketplace, it remains concerned the regulatory environment might create an environment in which consumers do not receive the same protections from unregulated businesses that offer services traditionally offered by credit unions and banks.
The full letter can be found here.