CUNA announced today the appointment of Deshundra Jefferson as Chief Stategic Communications Officer, where she will be responsible for developing and implementing strategies that effectively communicate the credit union difference to policymakers, the media and consumers. 

Reps. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.) and Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) appeared together in a video discussing ways credit unions help their communities, and why it’s important to come together across the aisle to support legislators that champion credit unions.

Reps. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.) and Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) introduced a bill Wednesday that would modernize the Federal Credit Union Act to allow a credit union board to expel a member for just cause. The bill has a bipartisan Senate companion bill, introduced in February.

The Senate Banking Committee agreed via voice vote Wednesday to advance the nomination of Kyle Hauptman to serve on the NCUA board. If confirmed, Hauptman would take the seat of current board member J. Mark McWatters.

CUNA continued its strong push to include Paycheck Protection Program forgiveness language in the next phase of pandemic relief legislation Tuesday with a letter to Congress and an updated action alert calling on credit union stakeholders to support the bill.

CUNA expressed appreciation for the CFPB's proactive effort to facilitate the LIBOR transition for consumer financial products in response to LIBOR’s planned discontinuation after 2021. The CFPB intends for a final rule on LIBOR to take effect on March 15, 2021.

The CFPB should ensure its debt collection rulemakings do not extend unwarranted regulatory requirements to first-party debt collectors, CUNA wrote Tuesday in response to a proposal that would amend Regulation F to require debt collectors to make certain disclosures when collecting time-barred debts.

A bill introduced Tuesday would create a $2 billion Community Development Institutions Crisis Fund to help with pandemic recovery. The bill’s $2 billion would serve as a complement to the Treasury’s CDFI Fund and would be refilled as funds are deployed each year.

Several circuit courts of appeal in recent months have issued rulings that are at odds with credit union-supported positions in TCPA cases and regulatory proceedings involving the use of automated telephone dialing systems.

CUNA is concerned that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is considered “industry altering changes” without sufficient public consideration, it wrote to the agency Monday. The acting comptroller has stated that the OCC is considering implementing a special purpose bank charter limited to payments services.