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During the course of the COVID-19 crisis, our advocacy efforts have remained extremely active. The efforts have focused on three areas. First, the Governmental Affairs team has been hard at work pushing for regulatory, legislative, executive orders and other COVID-19-related rulemakings to reflect the needs of credit unions. Second, we have ensured credit unions are at the table with decision makers and influencers around the state. Finally, the Communications Team has been an active voice in communicating the safety, soundness, and strength of Maine’s credit unions.
On the Governmental Affairs front, we successfully got ahead of essential services orders at the local and state levels to have credit unions included in them. This was not always case in other states. We worked with Governor Mills’ office, the Maine Bankers Association, Maine Association of Realtors, and others to allow remote notarization. Along with CUNA, we advocated to improve key elements of SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program and other areas of the CARES Act.
To ensure credit unions are at the table, we have participated in meetings with the Maine state and local chambers of commerce; trade groups; local, state, and federal governmental officials; our regional SBA office; FAME; our regulators; and other influencers. These meetings have been essential to communicate your interests, and to position credit unions as critical resources in Maine’s collective response to COVID-19. We are, after all, financial first responders and essential services.
For example, last night and two evenings last week, we along with the Maine Bankers Association, the Maine State Chamber of Commerce, and the regional SBA office participated in town hall-style calls hosted by U.S. Representative Jared Golden. Each call had 300-3,000 participants. Aside from providing much needed guidance to our small businesses, it was great to hear each of the panelists on the calls stop to say banks AND credit unions on nearly every reference made to lenders or financial institutions.
At the same time, we have maintained a strong, consistent public presence and have helped to support your own communication efforts. Early on we issued a joint press release with the Maine Bankers Association to reassure Mainers about their financial services. We’ve developed social media and communication assets for you to use. We created a fraud/scam awareness piece, which we have shared with Maine’s Department of Economic and Community Development for their distribution channels, and with you for your own use. We created new awareness ads and are retooling the overall messaging and resources for our statewide awareness campaign to reflect the moment. In the coming days, we plan to issue a press release to encourage Mainers to cash their stimulus checks at a credit union to avoid scams and high check cashing fees.
These efforts are not the League’s alone. They are ours together and reflect only a fraction of all that we have collectively done together or what we will need to do in the future. As we move to address the challenges and, yes, opportunities COVID-19 presents, please continue to be involved, stay connected, and provide input. It is essential to inform and enable how we work to improve the financial lives of Mainers through COVID-19 and beyond.