CUNA Senior Economist Dawit Kebede said the April Consumer Price Index report shows inflation is easing, as the three items except food are the major contributors to the monthly increase. This supports the Fed's decision to pause future rate hikes.

CUNA announced David Park as the newest senior director of advocacy and counsel. Park will serve as the association’s subject matter expert on housing issues. He brings over a decade of experience in legal analysis and regulatory compliance.

Reps. John Rose, R-Tenn., and Brittany Pettersen, D-Colo., introduced CUNA and League-backed legislation that would require Congressional testimony on the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund’s operations and activities.

NCUA issued a revised Interagency Policy Statement on Allowances for Credit Losses that removes references to Troubled Debt Restructurings, describes the measurement of expected credit losses  and includes processes for the design, documentation, and validation of expected credit losses.

Credit unions must receive parity with banks in any deposit reform legislation, CUNA wrote to House Financial Services and Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee leadership Monday. Congress and the Federal Reserve have indicated interest in deposit insurance reform in the wake of recent high-profile bank collapses.  

The House and Senate are both in Washington, D.C., this week, and CUNA will be engaged with several committee hearings throughout the week, including ones on cannabis banking, digital assets, recent bank collapses, the fiscal year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, and more. 

The CFPB should not classify identifying information such as credit header information as a consumer report, CUNA wrote in response to a request from other groups that the CFPB issue an advisory opinion to define credit header data as a consumer report.

CUNA Chief Economist Mike Schenk this month’s surprisingly job strong report is that the Fed is now more likely to increase market rates again and also is likely to keep rates high for longer than previously anticipated.

The current conditions of rising rates and substantial inflation resemble the early 1980s and many finance leaders haven’t experienced navigating the headwinds of high rates, changing appetite for loans and intense competition to attract and retain deposits.