Protecting, empowering, advancing credit unions

Congress returned to Washington, D.C., this week, providing us the opportunity to introduce our new united trade association working on behalf of credit unions.

I wrote to members of Congress and the heads of regulatory agencies emphasizing the need to protect, empower, and advance credit unions and the members they serve to ensure our country can thrive.

The America’s Credit Unions advocacy team is working with policymakers on the following priorities:

• Preserving the credit union tax status, the part of the industry’s structure that allows you to focus on our “people helping people” mission;
• Holding regulators accountable by advocating for right-sized rules, setting the record straight on “junk fees,” and preventing arbitrary barriers for consumers and businesses that rely on credit unions;?
• Protecting and empowering consumers by fighting to maintain the interchange system, establishing federal data protection standards, and ensuring a level playing field; and
• Modernizing credit union opportunities, including expanding both business and consumer access to credit unions, enhancing credit unions’ ability to lend, and allowing new investment options for credit unions.

We’re off to a great start, with the introduction Wednesday of a bill to allow increased federal credit union loan maturities by a bipartisan group of representatives. This bill directly addresses a priority we highlighted, and we look forward to moving it—and others—forward this year.

Read our priorities letter to policymakers here

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Transformation conversations continue

Our Executive Leadership Team met with the Transition Board this week at our Washington, D.C., office as we continue to move forward on our transformation. I’m excited and inspired by the passionate conversations we’re having about the mission and vision of America’s Credit Unions. We will continue to be intentional in all our decisions and are committed to looking at everything we do through a new lens, as we are committed to creating a new organization to best serve you.

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Stay up to date on the latest compliance information

Best-in-class compliance support is a top priority of our new organization. Our Compliance Team stands ready to answer questions on any issue you might have and will be publishing new posts on our Compliance Blog Tuesdays and Thursdays each week. These posts will cover breakdowns of new requirements to analysis of recent legal developments, and much more. Yesterday’s post breaks down a recent rule on accessing Beneficial Ownership Information.

Check out the Compliance Blog here

Continuing the interchange fight

Our efforts to fight against the big box bailout bill are leading our 2024 efforts. We’re part of the Electronic Payments Coalition—which represents nearly 10,000 financial institutions in all 50 states—and have ads running around the country to highlight Main Street opposition to the bill. This campaign includes digital display and video ads flagging the many negative impacts this bill—and other recent interchange proposals—would have.

Learn about the ad campaign here

Award-winning speaker joins World Credit Union Conference agenda

We're excited to have Erica Dhawan join us at this year's joint World Credit Union Conference! I'm excited to hear her insights on Concrete Empathy and provide credit union leaders with a playbook for leading modern teams on innovation.

Join me in Boston July 21-24

More from 360-degree advocacy

• We generally support the CFPB’s proposed rule placing large non-bank payment companies under its supervision but offered several recommendations to ensure a level playing field.
• The CFPB’s Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act panel shared several of our concerns over a potential Fair Credit Reporting Act rulemaking.
• I congratulated new NCUA Board Member Tanya Otsuka on her swearing in this week and highlighted several issues for her to consider.
• We wrote a House Financial Services subcommittee with concerns over the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule.