NAFCU Staff Meeting With NCUA Today On CDFI Fund

ARLINGTON, Va.—NAFCU staff today will attend a meeting with NCUA’s Office of Small Credit Union Initiatives to discuss the next steps for the agency’s recent partnership with the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund.
In January, CDFI Director Annie Donovan, Treasury Acting Assistant Secretary Amias Gerety and NCUA signed a Memorandum of Understanding to facilitate increased credit union involvement in the CDFI Fund.
Speaking at CUNA’s America’s Credit Union Conference Monday, NCUA Board Chairman Rick Metsger said he hopes to add at least 200 new CDFI-certified credit unions by year end.
Writing CDFI Senior Advisor Bill Luecht in May, NAFCU Senior Regulatory Affairs Counsel Michael Emancipator noted that at the end of 2015 there were “approximately 250 CDFI certified credit unions, holding total assets of about $50 billion, which represents almost half of assets held by all CDFIs.”
Emancipator said the CDFI Fund’s recent partnership with NCUA will lead to the financial empowerment of millions of un- and underbanked Americans.
Emancipator and NAFCU Regulatory Affairs Counsel Ann Kossachev will attend Wednesday’s meeting.
Also during the meeting, NAFCU said Emancipator and Kossachev will highlight a NAFCU-sought, recently introduced bill that would allow credit unions of all charter types to add underserved areas to their fields of membership. The “Financial Services for the Underserved Act,” was introduced earlier this month by Reps. Tim Ryan (D-OH) and Donald Norcross (D-NJ). Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-AZ) is an original cosponsor of the bill.
Currently, only credit unions with multiple-group charters are able to add underserved areas to their fields of membership. This bill would allow other types of credit unions to seek the NCUA Board’s approval to add such areas, NAFCU noted.