Credit unions “showing their work” is critical to advocacy success, CUNA Chief Advocacy Officer Ryan Donovan said during his remarks Tuesday at CUNA’s Governmental Affairs Conference. Donovan said credit unions play a critical role helping Americans, and when they show their work, policymakers listen.
“The work you do to improve your members’ financial well-being and advance the communities you serve makes our advocacy progress possible. It helps advance our system’s advocacy agenda, and frankly, made the work of executing our 360-degree advocacy strategy that much easier,” he says. “But we face challenges ahead, and we need to redouble our efforts to tell the story and show the impact. We need to maintain our progress and take advantage of opportunities to advance our agenda in a fundamentally different political environment.”
As the new Congress and administration start working on combating the effects of the pandemic and return to normal legislative activity, Donovan says he expects a focus on financial inclusion and equity.
“This is an opportunity for credit unions: policymakers have a need, and we hold the ready-made people-over-profit solution,” Donovan says, adding that with new leadership at NCUA and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), credit unions’ message needs to be clear.
“As America focuses on rebuilding from the worst public health crisis of our lifetimes, policy should enable—not impede—credit unions’ work to improve their members' financial well-being and advance the communities they serve,” he says.
This means:
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