WASHINGTON–Echoing remarks delivered by CUNA’s CEO, Ryan Donovan also called on credit unions to emphasize and demonstrate the work they do to improve members financial well-being, especially to Congress.
Donovan, CUNA’s chief advocacy officer, told the trade group’s virtual GAC policymakers listen when credit unions “show their work.”
“The work you do to improve your members’ financial well-being and advance the communities you serve makes our advocacy progress possible. It helps advance our system’s advocacy agenda, and frankly, makes the work of executing our 360-degree advocacy strategy that much easier,” Donovan said. “But we face challenges ahead, and we need to redouble our efforts to tell the story and show the impact. We need to maintain our progress and take advantage of opportunities to advance our agenda in a fundamentally different political environment.”
Donovan told the meeting he expects the new Congress and administration to focus on financial inclusion and equity as they return to normal legislative activity. That will give credit unions an opportunity to be the “ready-made people-over-profit solution” for consumers across the country, he said.
During his remarks Donovan added that with new leadership at NCUA and the CFPB, the credit union message must be clear.
Advocacy Goals
According to CUNA, Donovan will lead CUNA’s 2021 advocacy efforts to ensure:
- Future coronavirus (COVID-19) recovery packages include provisions that give the NCUA the ability to offer prompt corrective action flexibility for credit unions impacted by the pandemic
- Credit unions aren’t penalized with new regulatory or supervisory requirements because balance sheets have been inflated by pandemic-related stimulus
- Regulators adopt a “do no harm” approach to regulatory review
- Congress takes a fresh look at modernizing the Federal Credit Union Act in ways that help credit unions promote financial inclusion and economic equity
- Congress enacts a national data security and privacy law with a strong security standard that applies to all entities that hold consumer data and is a single rule for the road, preempting state law
- Congress preserves the credit union tax status since credit unions are fulfilling their mission and deliver financial benefits that are nine times the “cost” of the exemption to the government