WASHINGTON—CUNA has sent a pair of letters to Capitol Hill, the first in advance of a hearing today, the second in response to an earlier attack by a bankers’ group.
In its letter to the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs, CUNA expressed support for several international credit union priorities in fiscal year 2024. The committee will conduct a hearing with U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power today.
“Considering (the) hearing and the Committee’s role in appropriating funds for international aid programs, we are writing in strong support of fiscal year 2024 funding levels of $50 million for the CDP; $30 million to expand for the Credit for Agriculture Producers' (CAP) Technical Assistance Project; and $50 million to support the efforts of the countries surrounding Ukraine to support reintegration of Ukrainian displaced persons and refugees,” the letter reads.
The CDP is administered by USAID and is a global initiative that focuses on building capacity of cooperative businesses and cooperative systems for self-reliance, local ownership, and sustainability.
Combined Savings of Nearly $500 Million
According to CUNA, it’s “implementing partners have advanced cooperative businesses and systems in more than 18 countries and supported more than 500 cooperatives and credit unions with a combined savings of $495 million over the program’s life.”
The CAP Project is designed to strengthen partner credit unions and expand access to agricultural credit for farmers. CAP partners have received fuel, digital service, and loan reimbursement services, among others, in the past year, CUNA said.
USAID extended it through September 2024 in February.
“We are asking Congress to appropriate $30 million to expand the CAP Project to support Ukrainian credit unions in rebuilding their war-torn country to ensure the liquidity of credit unions, access to savings and agricultural loans to support local food security, and other community needs,” the letter reads. “CAP should be fully funded and expanded to continue when its current authorization expires at the end of fiscal year 2024.”
Letter in Response to Bankers
In its second letter, CUNA called on the House Financial Services Committee leadership to address “misleading and incorrect” statements about credit unions the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) distributed earlier this month.
“ICBA’s letter urged the committee to hold a hearing on NCUA, which was already scheduled to take place in May with Chairman Todd Harper testifying. In addition, NCUA testifies before the committee every year,” CUNA explained. “While we support strong oversight by all financial regulators, including the NCUA, CUNA is disheartened that the banks continue to use misinformation against the efforts of non-for-profit member-owned credit unions to help consumers and communities.”
Additional Responses
CUNA’s responses to the bankers’ claims also included:
- Banks continue to fight against credit union field of membership modernizations while calling for requiring credit unions to participate in the national Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), despite abandoning the underserved communities credit unions seek to serve. Banks closed a net 10,561 branches between 2004 and 2022, while credit unions opened a net 1,745 branches
- Credit unions’ service to low-and-moderate-income (LMI) borrowers is superior to other lenders, despite banks’ misguided claims that credit unions do not serve LMI borrowers and communities. Credit unions approve first mortgage loans to LMI and minority borrowers at much higher rates than other lenders, have lower denial rates, and are 1.7 times more likely to originate a subprime auto loan than banks
- NCUA’s interest rate ceiling has a positive impact on consumers and raising it would help many average consumers
- Credit unions are subject to strict requirements and rules for business and fair lending, and despite those limitations continue to meet member business needs, especially during times of financial crisis, CUNA said.
- Despite bank claims about banks selling to credit unions, the number is miniscule compared to bank-to-bank purchases (67 sales to credit unions vs. 2,453 sales to banks since 2012), and such sales are a win-win for all stakeholders, including new members, communities, and employees.
Feeling the FOMO Fever? CUToday.info Has a Prescription
Are you missing out on the latest news in credit unions? Missing the trends and developments you need to be aware of? We can help. Each morning CUToday.info delivers its daily Fresh Today news update offering the latest headlines and breaking news right to your email, with the easy-to-read headlines format allowing you to click on the stories that interest you most in order to learn more.
And it’s free!
If you haven’t yet signed up for the new email solution on which CUToday.info has partnered with ResponseGenius, you can do so here. Signing up requires less than one minute of your time—and it’s free!
Please note that after signing up you may need to go to your Spam/Junk folder and mark the morning headlines email as safe. CUToday.info does not provide its list of readers and emails to outside parties, and we will not be contacting you to sell you an extended warranty or sending you any links so you may cash in on an inheritance you didn’t know was coming.
And did we mention it’s free?
Please note and/or make your IT department or email administrator aware the emails will be coming from the domains CUTodayinfo.com and CUTodayinfoReply.com