WASHINGTON (2/16/16)--A group of nine senators wrote to federal banking regulators, including the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) last week, requesting a status update and the next steps for the statutorily mandated review of regulations. The Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act (EGRPRA) requires a review of existing regulations to identify outdated, unnecessary or unduly burdensome regulations.

"Crushed under an ever-increasing regulatory burden, community banks and credit unions are disappearing from America's financial landscape... If legislators miss this opportunity to lift unnecessary regulatory burdens, many more small banks and credit unions will disappear," the senators wrote. "Local communities will lose the only banking presence they have ever known, and as a result, investment and job creation in these areas will suffer."

Since the beginning of the financial crisis, credit unions have been subjected to at least 202 regulatory changes from nearly two dozen federal agencies totaling more than 6,000 Federal Register pages.

The Credit Union National Association (CUNA) has dubbed this a "crisis of creeping complexity," and has made reducing regulatory burdens to improve credit unions' operating environment a top advocacy priority. CUNA's actions on this front have included a number of testimonies before Congress, as well as support for regulatory relief legislation, support for regulatory relief proposals and letters sent to regulators and members of Congress asking for relief.

Sens. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Dean Heller (R-Nev.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Michael Rounds (R-S.D.), Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), David Vitter (R-La.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) signed the letter, which was addressed to the heads of the NCUA, Federal Reserve, Office of the Comptroller of the Community and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.