ARLINGTON, Va.–While a bill in the Senate may exempt credit unions from complying with the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), the overall compliance burden it would create along with other limits on field and membership means it doesn't deserve credit union support, according to NAFCU.
As CUToday.info reported, the American Housing and Economic Mobility Act of 2021 has been re-introduced by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and has the support of CUNA. The bill was also introduced in the prior Congress.
“It’s a big comprehensive bill on housing reform,” noted Carrie Hunt, EVP and general counsel with NAFCU. “It’s no secret on the part of many Democratic senators that they want additional housing reform and this is part of that. For credit unions, specifically, during the formation of this bill and in various earlier incarnations, credit unions were pulled under the purview of CRA. NAFCU and others opposed that. Ultimately in the bill credit unions were exempted, but there are these new guardrails around adding underserved areas of field of membership. When NAFCU looks at a bill, we need legislation that is a net positive. We don’t think from a policy perspective this does that.”