March 20, 2013 – NAFCU President and CEO Fred Becker, in a letter Tuesday to the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, urged lawmakers to make reducing credit unions’ regulatory compliance costs under the Dodd-Frank Act a priority.
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“Credit unions didn’t cause the financial crisis and shouldn’t be caught
in the crosshairs of regulations aimed at those entities that did."
– NAFCU President and CEO Fred Becker in a letter
Tuesday to House Financial Services Subcommittee Chairman Capito, Ranking Member Meeks
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Writing in advance of the panel’s hearing today on the impact of regulation on community banks, Becker said the impact of growing regulatory compliance burden on credit unions “is evident as the number of credit unions continues to decline, dropping by more than 700 institutions since 2009.”
“Credit unions didn’t cause the financial crisis and shouldn’t be caught in the crosshairs of regulations aimed at those entities that did. Unfortunately, that has not been the case thus far,” Becker wrote in his letter to panel Chairman Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Ranking Member Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y. “Accordingly, finding ways to cut down on burdensome and unnecessary regulatory compliance costs is a chief priority of our members. We hope it will also be a priority of the subcommittee.”
Becker said NAFCU’s five-point plan for regulatory relief offers several areas where Congress can act to reduce the overwhelming burden credit unions face. He forwarded that plan, as outlined in a letter Feb. 12 to Congress, to subcommittee members with Tuesday’s letter.
Today’s hearing is set for 10 a.m. and will include testimony from representatives of FDIC and the Government Accountability Office.