CUNA is heavily engaged in its support of the bipartisan Senate regulatory relief bill, scheduled to be marked up by the Senate Banking Committee Tuesday. The Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act (S. 2155) contains several regulatory relief provisions for credit unions, and would achieve several goals of CUNA’s bipartisan, pro-consumer Campaign for Common-Sense Regulation.  

S. 2155 contains a credit union-specific regulatory relief provision that 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 reporters of suspected senior abuse and require the Treasury to study cyber risks.

CUNA has launched a nationwide grassroots effort to support the bill, and has written to the bill’s co-sponsors thanking them for support. CUNA also issued an action alert to credit unions last week.

The markup is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. (ET) Tuesday, and will be streamed live on the committee’s website.

On the House side, the CUNA-supported Community Institution Mortgage Relief Act of 2017 (H.R. 3971) is expected to see floor consideration this week. The bill would exempt mortgage loans from small financial institutions from certain Truth in Lending Act and Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act requirements.

The House Financial Services Committee passed H.R. 3971 in October.

Hearings CUNA is engaged with this week include:

• Wednesday, 10 a.m. (ET): House Financial Services subcommittee on housing and insurance hearing on sustainable housing finance;
   
• Thursday, 10 a.m. (ET): House Financial Services subcommittee on oversight and investigations hearing titled “Examining the Office of Financial Research;”
   
• Thursday, 2 p.m. (ET): House Financial Services subcommittee on financial institutions and consumer credit hearing on several pieces of legislation, including a CUNA-backed bill that would repeal NCUA’s risk-based capital rule.