WASHINGTON–Both CUNA and NAFCU have put on the full court press in lobbying for passage of regulatory relief legislation currently before Congress, but one senator said prospects for the bill could be dim depending on any changes that might be made.
CUNA, meanwhile, has joined with the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) today in a joint letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and other House leadership in requesting timely floor consideration for the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act (S 2155).
The letter comes as Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), speaking to the American Bankers Association meeting here, said S 2155 will not pass if it returns to the Senate.
“We’ve stretched this as far we can,” Warner said.
As CUToday.info has reported, the bill has passed both the House and the Senate and is now back before the House for reconciliation. The legislation provides numerous elements of regulatory relief that have been requested by both credit unions and banks, including raising to $250 billion from $50 billion the threshold at which a bank is considered “too big to fail,” meaning it would not need to hold as much capital. As CUToday.info reported here, a change in the capital rules could mean $53 billion would be freed up at banks to be paid to shareholders or invested elsewhere.
Progress on the bill since returning to the House has been slow, with House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) seeking to amend the bill.
Warner told the ABA, however, that the bill “includes 42 different bills that passed the House” and that “262 members of the House have their fingerprints” on portions of the bill.
Warner indicated the Senate would not be amenable to many of the amendments, and further noted that there are other challenges looming for Congress on a number of fronts that could push the bill off the agenda.
Joint CUNA, ICBA Letter
Meanwhile, the joint CUNA/ICBA letter states, “Years of deliberation, hearings, markups, and floor votes in the House inspired and prompted the Senate to craft and consider S 2155. This is effectively a bicameral bill; the House deserves as much credit for S 2155 as the Senate. As this letter demonstrates, S 2155 is a rare instance of agreement between our two trade associations. While we have our policy differences, expeditious enactment of S 2155 is imperative for the industries we represent."
In addition, CUNA and ICBA also pointed to what they called the “common-sense provisions” in the bill, such as automatic “qualified mortgage” status for portfolio mortgages at small-asset institutions, TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure (TRID) relief, and an exemption from new HMDA reporting for certain low-volume lenders.
"Taken together, the provisions of S 2155 would create tiered regulatory relief for community financial institutions, allowing them to dedicate more resources to serving agricultural and Main Street customers,” the organizations wrote. “The bill would also deter industry consolidation and thereby promote a healthy and robust financial services marketplace to the benefit of individual customers and small businesses across the nation.”