Earlier in the year the U.S. House passed the Financial CHOICE Act H.R. 10 by Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), the large-scope legislation that sought to make sweeping changes to financial oversight and reform the Dodd-Frank Act. However, passing a bill out of the House is one thing; having it become law is quite another (as that bill has awaited action in the Senate since June). As such, the Campaign for Common Sense Regulatory Reform has not stopped, with credit unions, Leagues and CUNA keeping the need for regulatory relief at the forefront with Congress.
This credit union push for Congress to provide relief is done in a variety of ways – federal lobbying to keep the issues moving; educating credit union staff, members and the media; Hiking the Hill to emphasize to federal legislators and key staff on why relief is needed (something Georgia credit unions did in September), and engaging locally in the district. These consistent efforts pay off, and on October 12th credit unions saw positive movement when the House Financial Services Committee passed eight bipartisan regulatory relief bills to help the industry. These bills move forward to the full House for their consideration:
- H.R. 1116, the Taking Account of Institutions with Low Operation Risk (TAILOR) Act by Rep. Scott Tipton (R-CO) to reduce regulatory burden by requiring federal regulators to take the risk profile and business model into account with regulations;
- H.R. 2396, the Privacy Notification Technical Clarification Act by Rep. Dave Trott (R-MI) to amend the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act to provide an exception in annual privacy notifications (creating flexibility to omit a mass mailing when nothing has changed and the policy is available elsewhere);
- H.R. 2706, the Financial Institution Consumer Protection Act of 2017 by Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO) to limit federal regulators’ ability to discourage or restrict depository institutions from entering into or maintaining a financial services relationship with specific customers unless certain criteria are met (anti-Operation Choke Point legislation);
- H.R. 2954, the Home Mortgage Disclosure Adjustment Act by Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN) to provide relief to credit unions by raising the threshold that triggers Home Mortgage Disclosure Act reporting requirements to 1,000 closed-end and 2,000 open-end mortgages;
- H.R. 3072, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection Examination and Reporting Threshold Act of 2017 by Rep. Lacy Clay (D-MO) to increase the threshold of credit unions and banks subject to direct examination and reporting requirements of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from $10 billion to $50 billion;
- H.R. 3758, the Senior Safe Act of 2017 by Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) to improve the ability of credit unions to protect seniors from unscrupulous activity by providing legal immunity for properly trained financial services employees who disclose concerns about financial exploitation of senior citizens;
- H.R. 3857, the Protecting Advice for Small Savers Act of 2017 by Rep. Ann Wagner (R-MO) to repeal the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule; and
- H.R. 3971, the Community Institution Mortgage Relief Act of 2017 by Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) to amend the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) and the Real Estate Settlements Procedures Act (RESPA) by exempting mortgage loans made by financial institutions under $25 billion in assets from TILA’s escrow requirements and exempting mortgage servicers that service fewer than 30,000 mortgages annually from the requirements of Section 6 of RESPA.
