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The Telephone Consumer Protection Act is an "antiquated approach to communications regulations" that prevents consumers from receiving information they need from their financial institutions, NAFCU's Brad Thaler said in a letter sent in advance of a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing today.

Today's hearing, held by the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, will look at how the TCPA can be modernized. Thaler, NAFCU's vice president of legislative affairs, specifically pointed out that the TCPA does not take into account the impact on membership-based institutions or the compliance burden that regulations place on small businesses.

"The intent of the TCPA is to ensure that all egregious offenders are grouped together," he wrote to subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., and Ranking Member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. "However, such grouping has inadvertently included good actors as well."

Thaler said NAFCU applauds Walden and Eshoo for their efforts "to present a more nuanced approach to updating the TCPA that takes into account the needs of membership-based businesses."

He also noted that while the association appreciates the Federal Communications Commission's initiatives to clarify and modernize the TCPA, it "believes that the FCC has hindered consumers' ability to receive important notifications and timely updates about financial developments that have the potential to impact their existing accounts, on both mobile and residential phone lines."

NAFCU has long urged the FCC to reconsider its action relative to credit unions. The same concerns were also raised in the report language accompanying the fiscal 2017 financial services and general government appropriations bill in the House. Thaler also pointed to several letters from NAFCU to the FCC on this issue.

NAFCU yesterday also signed onto a joint statement for the hearing that outlines in more details the concerns the association has with the TCPA and its impact on credit unions and their members.