The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has declined to recalibrate its regulatory approach to fulfill consumer protection mandates without impeding access to safe and affordable financial services, CUNA wrote to a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs subcommittee on a hearing about fees.

“The cooperative structure of credit unions ensures earnings – including fee income – are returned to members in the form of lower interest rates on loans, higher interest on deposits, and lower fees,” the letter reads. “In fact, credit unions exist only to serve their members, and the relationship between credit unions and their members is fundamentally stronger than the relationship other financial service providers have with their customers.

“The CFPB and the Administration have repeatedly classified a broad range of ordinary fees in the consumer financial services market as so-called “junk fees” obscuring the true cost of financial services,” it adds.

CUNA noted this messaging is “intentionally misleading and clearly wrong-headed,” especially since most of the rules governing bank and credit union fees are “either promulgated or administered by the CFPB itself.”