Newsroom

NAFCU Executive Vice President of Government Affairs Dan Berger on Tuesday pressed leaders of the House Committee on Small Business to support an increase in credit unions' member business lending authority as they examine ways to bolster small business job creation and economic growth.

Berger wrote committee Chairman Sam Graves, R-Mo., and Ranking Member Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., to coincide with today's hearing, "State of the Small Business Economy." The hearing will include a special focus on the role access to capital plays in supporting small businesses.

Access to capital, Berger wrote, is a specific area where credit unions could offer more support to small businesses if the arbitrary MBL cap were lifted. The MBL cap, currently set at 12.25 percent of total assets, continues to hinder credit unions' ability to "help speed the recovery from one of the worst economic downturns in our nation's history," Berger said. The cap also hampers some credit unions' ability to issue Small Business Administration loans, he noted, as non-guaranteed portions of SBA loans made by credit unions count toward the cap.

Increased MBL authority is included in NAFCU's five-point plan for credit union regulatory relief, released Tuesday. The plan outlines the association's proposals for bringing broad-based regulatory relief to credit unions through administrative, capital, structural, operational and data security reforms.

• "NAFCU calls for CU reg relief," 2/12