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The Senate Banking Committee voted 16-7 to pass the CUNA-backed, bipartisan Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act (S. 2155). CUNA and your League strongly support the bill, which contains several regulatory relief provisions for credit unions. Todd Mason, President of the Maine Credit Union League, applauded the Committee's action and once again thanked Senator King for his early support. "Though not a member of the Committee, Senator King's support as an original co-sponsor of the bill helped to get it started and he has been vocal in his support in the days leading up to the Committee's mark-up. We look forward to his continued support as the bill now heads to the full Senate."
"Advancing this bill through committee is a strong first step, but credit unions must remain engaged and keep up the momentum to get this bill to the finish line," CUNA President/CEO Jim Nussle told your League. "We saw at the markup that the regulatory relief measures in this bill have strong bipartisan support, and CUNA will continue its advocacy push to help move this bill forward."
Mason also thanked the Maine credit union staff and volunteers that took the time to send a 'thank you' message to Senator King for being an original co-sponsor. "We would ask that those messages continue. Additionally, we will likely be doing another 'Call to Action' campaign to both of our Senators as the bill heads to the full Senate."
While the bill contains several provisions that would help credit unions, most notably, a credit union-specific provision in S. 2155 would exempt one-to-four unit, non-owner occupied residential loans from a credit union's member business lending cap, freeing up to as much as $4 billion in additional capital credit unions could lend.
Other provisions would also offer regulatory relief through changes to mortgage servicing and lending rules, help protect credit union employees who report suspected elder financial abuse and require the Treasury to study cyber risks. These provisions are consistent with the goals of CUNA's bipartisan, pro-consumer Campaign for Common-Sense Regulation.