FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Vicki Christner – CUNA Communications; 202-329-9950; vchristner@cuna.coop 

Washington, DC (April 25, 2017) – CUNA stands ready to work with legislators to see regulatory relief enacted into law and the CHOICE Act is a good first step, CUNA wrote to House Financial Services leadership Tuesday. CUNA’s letter was sent in advance of Wednesday’s hearing on Chairman Jeb Hensarling’s (R-Texas) CHOICE Act.

“We appreciate that the Committee is taking a bold initial step in the legislative process and we thank Chairman Hensarling for his leadership in this effort,” said Jim Nussle, CUNA president/CEO. “As this and other legislation moves through the process, we will work with the House and the Senate to ensure the legislation ultimately enacted into law meaningfully reduces credit unions’ regulatory burden and maintains important consumer protections.”

Nussle urged credit unions to take advantage of congressional attention on financial regulatory relief last week. He told stakeholders to use CUNA’s Campaign for Common-Sense Regulation resources to tell policymakers to support regulatory relief.

CUNA supports the following provisions in the CHOICE Act:

• Allowing qualifying credit unions (with an average leverage ratio of at least 10%) to be exempt from certain provisions of the Federal Credit Union Act and rules and regulation promulgated by NCUA;
• Changing the structure and authority of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). This includes bringing the bureau under the appropriations process; establishing an independent inspector general, removing its Unfair, Deceptive and Abusive Acts authority; establish an office of economic analysis; and repeal its authority to restrict arbitration;
• Providing relief from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act by increasing reporting requirement thresholds to 100 closed-end and 200 open-end mortgages;
• Adjusting the definition of “points and fees” under the Qualified Mortgage (QM) rule;
• Classifying loans held by financial institutions in portfolio as QM loans;
• Exempting mortgage loans made by financial institutions under $10 billion in assets and held in portfolio for 3 years from the Truth in Lending Act’s escrow requirements and exempting mortgage servicers that service fewer than 20,000 mortgages annually from the requirements of Section 6 of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act;
• Requiring NCUA to allow examination and public comment it its budget before adoption and requiring more transparency regarding the overhead transfer rate;
• Reforming the examination process by creating an independent ombudsman and an independent appeals process;
• Protecting properly trained financial institution employees that report in good faith suspected financial elder abuse;
• Requiring CFPB and NCUA and other regulators to account for an entity’s size and risk when promulgating regulations; and
• Repealing the Durbin Amendment;
• Prohibiting regulators from forcing a financial institution to close certain accounts for certain industries.

CUNA has concerns with provisions that would allow federal savings association to operate as national banks, bring NCUA under the appropriations process and others.

CUNA also requested the following proposals be included in the bill:

• Strengthening CFPB’s exemption authority under section 1022 of the Dodd-Frank Act;
• Installing a 5-person commission to lead CFPB;
• Giving credit unions parity with banks by exempting 1-4 family non-owner occupied residential loans from the member business lending cap; and
• Clarifying that the Dodd-Frank Act exempts by the business of insurance from CFPB authority. 

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