Newsroom

February 24, 2017

Berger: CUs should not be under CFPB authority

NAFCU President and CEO Dan Berger highlights the downside of compromise, such as the one that led to CFPB authority over credit unions, in a Credit Union Journal editorial published Friday that also pledges NAFCU's continuing opposition and effort to win credit unions relief from CFPB rules.

"NAFCU and its board vehemently opposed the bureau having any rulemaking authority over credit unions," Berger wrote. "This is not to say that NAFCU and its members don't support the CFPB's goal of protecting consumers – we do. However, credit unions did not participate in the activities that led to the 2008 financial crisis that the bureau was created to address."

Berger noted that NAFCU was the only financial services trade association to oppose the bureau's rulemaking authority over the credit union industry and that the association still holds that position. "NAFCU always serves in the best interests of the association's members and the industry as a whole. That will not change," he wrote.

He explained that the credit union industry is in need of regulatory relief, and one easy way to accomplish that "would be to pull credit unions out from under the regulatory authority of the CFPB – or, at the very least, limit the number of rules from the bureau that would apply to credit unions."

To that end, Berger wrote that NAFCU has also repeatedly urged the CFPB to use its exemption authority under Section 1022(b)(3)(A) of the Dodd-Frank Act to exempt credit unions from the bureau's rulemakings.

"No one – especially not a government bureau – knows the individual financial needs of members better than the credit unions that serve them," he wrote. "NAFCU will continue this fight – with no compromise – so credit unions can continue to operate in the upright manner they always have for their 106 million members."