By Ray Birch
WASHINGTON—Credit union CEOs say provisions of the new regulatory relief bill related to mortgages and business lending aren’t the only areas where their operations will be affected; they see changes occurring elsewhere as well.
In part one of this two-part series, CUToday.info featured feedback from CEOs on what the on-the-ground effects of the newly enacted Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer
Protection Act will be on mortgage lending and member business lending.
In this, part two, CEOs share their responses to other aspects of the legislation.
Elder Financial Abuse
While the legislation’s provisions for the legal immunity for properly trained, good-faith reporters of suspected elder financial abuse won’t have the business benefits of some of the other rules under the new law, it will have a positive impact on credit unions and their memberships, noted Jane Dobbs, CEO of the $201-million Canyon State CU in Phoenix.
“Immunity for staff to report suspected cases of elder financial abuse provides support needed to ensure possible abuse issues are reported under good faith,” said Dobbs. “Unfortunately, we have had a few cases where elder abuse was apparent and we took the necessary steps to report it and the provision helps ensure this continues as appropriate.”
In San Bernardino, Calif., Heri Garcia, CEO of $85-million Thinkwise FCU, said his credit union has a big senior base and that the legislation providing a safe harbor for employees who act on a hunch will help out many older members.
Fighting Fraud
In Harrisburg, Penn., Greg Smith, CEO of the $5-billion Pennsylvania State Employees CU likes what the bill has done in the fight against fraud.
As crooks are amassing a great deal of personal information on consumers, they’re focusing on account takeover and creating false identities, CUToday.info has reported.
“We don’t see our members when they join, that’s one aspect of being branchless,” said Smith. “Not seeing the person joining creates a higher risk of identity theft or synthetic identities. The
Greg Smith
new legislation’s requirement for the Social Security Administration to provide a database of actual SSNs will be incredibly helpful.”
Finally, some CEOs did not miss the fact S.2155 requires NCUA to be transparent with its budget.
“The legislation requires NCUA to make publicly available a draft of their proposed budget, hold a hearing with public notice during which this draft would be discussed and solicit and consider public comment about the draft budget,” noted Garcia. “I want to be able to see how NCUA is budgeting for the year and have the ability to comment if need be.”
Bill Burke, CEO of the $386-million Day Air Credit Union in Ohio, was more straightforward, simply saying, “NCUA’s budget has been out of control for years and needs to be reined in.”
What Really Matters
Credit union benefits from the legislation aside, what is an important point, according to Jeanne Kucey, CEO of $197-million JetStream FCU in Miami Lakes, Fla., is that a regulatory relief act was passed.
“I think the biggest issue is that we got something passed in the current administration and will hopefully see more regulatory relief in the coming months,” said Kucey. “I was one of the NAFCU-affiliated credit union CEOs who met with President Trump at the White House earlier this year to discuss opportunities to strengthen the credit union industry, specifically through regulatory relief. I’m hopeful that the passage of S 2155 is just the start of rolling back burdensome regulations for credit unions.”