ARLINGTON, Va.—Praising a federal court’s rejection of a banking industry suit against NCUA and its member business lending rule, NAFCU Vice President of Legislative Affairs Brad Thaler urged House and Senate leaders to support further easing in regulatory burden for the nation’s credit unions.
The ruling by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia serves as a “scathing dismissal” of the banking industry suit and shows NCUA “was well within its authority” in issuing last year’s revised MBL rule, Thaler said.
The statutory limits for MBLs set in 1998 “are severely outdated and have not increased with inflation,” wrote Thaler in a letter to congressional leaders. The NCUA’s rule does not change these limits, Thaler said, but it eliminates an “unnecessarily bureaucratic process” created in the earlier rule, which he noted was overly complex and frustrated small businesses’ efforts to obtain funding.
Thaler praised NCUA’s willingness to remove regulatory red tape, a move that provided regulatory relief without exposing credit unions or small businesses to undue risk.
“NAFCU has long championed relief from the member business lending cap for credit unions,” Thaler said. “NAFCU continues to believe that credit unions deserve relief from this outdated and arbitrary cap and urges additional action from Congress in this regard. We hope you will support these efforts and other efforts to reduce regulatory burden for credit unions.”
Thaler’s letter went to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).