The backbone of successful advocacy

Utilizing and leveraging data is critical to advocacy. Impactful insights don’t mean out-of-context numbers and hard-to-parse spreadsheets, but focused, accurate information that backs up the policies we support.

Our Credit Union Impact Dashboard is designed for exactly that to give credit unions and Leagues timely access to reliable data that reinforces the power of the credit union difference.

This week showed us just how important tools like this will be next year and beyond in advocacy. Congress held several hearings addressing key advocacy priorities that affect the entire credit union industry:

• The Joint Economic Committee and a Senate Banking subcommittee conducted hearings on tax reform looking ahead to next year. Credit unions weren’t mentioned, but we submitted comments to both committees to inform them that the credit union tax status is how credit unions reach areas and people left behind by banks. ?
• The House Financial Services Committee heard from federal financial regulators—including NCUA Chairman Todd Harper—and we outlined how continued overregulation is “death by a thousand cuts” for credit unions. ?
• The Senate Judiciary Committee conducted a hearing on the Big Box Bailout bill, and though financial institutions were not invited, witnesses and our submitted comments reiterate the data that shows this bill would harm everyone but the biggest retailers.

Tax reform, interchange, and overregulation are the three top items on our advocacy agenda, and we were able to use data in our advocacy on each of these issues to make our point.

The pace will only pick up with a new Congress coming in January, as tax reform, re-introduction of bills, and new policies to support and fight back against will be part of our ongoing agenda.

Explore the dashboard

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Questioning continued NCUA budget increases

America’s Credit Unions Head of Emerging Issues/Deputy Chief Economist Curt Long examines the rapid increases in the NCUA’s budget in this month’s Economic Update. This year’s operating budget reflects a 12% increase from 2024, an unnecessary and unsustainable expansion. The agency’s spending is outpacing inflation, and we’re concerned with a lack of detail regarding benefits of the increased costs. Curt will present today at the agency’s budget briefing and we’ll file detailed written comments on the budget with the agency next week.

Watch the Economic Update here

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CFPB should pause rulemakings until after presidential transition

We wrote to CFPB Director Rohit Chopra this week requesting the agency pause any significant rulemaking actions until after the presential transition is complete. The incoming administration brings new policy priorities, and pausing now ensures policy alignment with the new administration and will allow for meaningful stakeholder engagement while maintaining economic stability.

Read the letter here

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Wall Street Journal Editorial Board shares interchange concerns

Following this week’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, the Wall Street Journal editorial board published an op-ed on the Big Box Bailout Bill, saying it would “backfire on consumers” as the biggest retailers would “love a race to the bottom in such fees because the bill redistributes income from cardholders to retailers.” They also correctly note we have more than a decade of data from the Durbin Amendment showing these caps only help big business.

Read the op-ed here

Relentless advocacy to advance, empower, and protect credit unions:

• The CFPB finalized an America’s Credit Unions-backed rule placing large consumer payment apps under the bureau’s supervision.
• We told the NCUA that its more than 30 proposed changes to the call report would combine to create significant burdens.
• We attended the the Treasury’s launch of the U.S. National Strategy on Financial Inclusion.
• We met with the Commodities Futures Trading Commission to discuss cryptocurrency investment scams and how credit unions can combat them.
• The NCUA board heard a quarterly share insurance fund update and approved the Central Liquidity Facility’s budget.

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Honor the 2025 Wegner Award winners

Join us March 3 as we celebrate the Herb Wegner Memorial Award winners in Washington, D.C.! Each of this year’s winners truly lives up to the innovative, creative, and risk-taking leadership of the award’s namesake:

• Deborah A. Wege, I-CUDE, cooperative community advocate of BECU in Washington;?
• Teri M. Robinson, CEO of Ironworkers USA FCU in Oregon;?
• Michael Valentine, president/CEO of BCU in Illinois; and?
• Maine Credit Unions’ Campaign for Ending Hunger in Maine.

I hope you can join me in honoring the winners while supporting the National Credit Union Foundation.?

Click here to secure a ticket today

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Women credit union leaders recognized

Shout out to the credit union leaders named “The Most Powerful Women in Credit Unions” for 2024 by American Banker, 15 leaders who are “addressing the problems and opportunities that their organizations and members face.” I’ve had the pleasure of working with many of the leaders on this list, and their passion and leadership help make the credit union movement into the powerful force it is today.

Read the list here