Thanks to the hard work of credit union advocates who met with the members of Congress last week at the GAC, there is movement on a key bill to provide positive changes. This bill, S. 2155, is the bipartisan regulatory reform package to make changes to Dodd-Frank provisions and relieve compliance burdens felt at financial institutions. After a long delay, this bill has been moving through the procedural process to be called up for a vote in the full U.S. Senate soon. The bill is the work of years of negotiations on the Senate side, with many hours of advocacy from credit unions, Leagues and CUNA between Hike the Hill visits, work with the Senate Banking Committee last spring for legislative proposals, and engagement in the series of hearings the committee has held.
While the bill has been amended on March 7th in the process and what is moving forward is a “substitute” version of the bill, the provisions that would provide relief for credit unions and small to midsize banks remain. This bill is intended to expand consumer access to mortgages, reduce regulations and create a safe harbor for those who report suspected elder abuse, but also to limit credit report data collection – something of note in the post-Equifax breach era. In addition, there is a provision in the current bill that would grant credit unions parity with banks by classifying residential loans on one- to four-unit, non-owner-occupied properties as real estate loans (and not business loans at they are today).
Special thanks to the credit union leaders who traveled to D.C. last week to speak with members of Congress on this bill, the credit unions who sent emails to the legislators in support, and to U.S. Sen. David Perdue (R) from Georgia for being one of the original sponsors. A vote is pending as of press time and may be as early as next week; stay tuned and to send a message of support to the two U.S. Senators from Georgia (who both support the bill) you can do so here.
