ARLINGTON, Va.—NAFCU has identified 15 issues as its priorities for the New Year.
After what it said were a number of victories in Washington during 2014, the 2015 rallying call will be “enough is enough” when it comes to regulatory burden on CUs, said NAFCU.
“We will continue to advance our message in 2015 to lawmakers and regulators and press for regulatory relief so credit unions have the resources and flexibility necessary to satisfy the financial services needs of their members,” said Berger. “We will continue to seek improvements in overly restrictive field-of-membership requirements, and we will keep up our pursuit of national data security standards for retailers to help ensure credit union members’ data is as safe as it can be. And we will keep as our highest priority the preservation of credit unions’ federal corporate income tax exemption.”
NAFCU’s Top 15 for 2015 are:
- Protect the credit union tax exemption. NAFCU noted the new Congress begins with new chairmen for both the House Ways and Means Committee and Senate Finance Committee.
- Guarantee credit unions’ access to the secondary mortgage market. “Congress and the administration continue to discuss housing finance reform, and it is unclear what government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would look like under a new system,” NAFCU said.
- End the overregulation of credit unions. NAFCU said it will continue to press for relief, having already released a five-point plan for such regulatory relief, and a “Dirty Dozen” list of “regulations that need to be updated or eliminated.”
- Support fair capital reform. Noting NCUA will soon issue a revised risk-based capital proposal, with a second comment period lasting at least 90 days,” NAFCU said it still believes NCUA lacks the legal authority to promulgate many aspects of the first proposal, such as imposing an individual minimum capital level.
- Promote a national data security standard for retailers.
- Support for member business lending. Among its priorities, elimination of the “arbitrary” CU member business loan cap.
- Support industry leading the way on payments reform. NAFCU said it wants to avoid “the risk and unintended consequences from the Fed stepping in.”
- Push for patent reform. “Credit unions and others continue to suffer from the frivolous litigation and attacks of so-called ‘patent trolls,’ NAFCU said.
- Seek E-SIGN Act reform . The process set by the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act for credit union member opt-ins to electronic statements and disclosures is poorly organized, cumbersome and outdated, according to NAFCU.
- Monitor the outcome of the debit interchange fee ruling. NAFCU said it continues to work with the financial services community to determine whether the Fed’s debit interchange rule will become an issue that needs to be addressed by Congress.
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