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The NCUA and Small Business Administration (SBA) today are hosting their second joint webinar aimed at increasing credit unions' small business lending. The agencies earlier this year entered into an agreement that launched a three-year collaboration to provide webinars, training events, and media outreach to increase credit unions' understanding and usage of SBA-backed loans and resources.

Registration for today's webinar – focused on preserving credit union lenders' loan guarantees through the origination, servicing, and lender review cycles – is still open. It will begin at 2 p.m. Eastern and questions can be submitted in advance by emailing the NCUA at webinarquestions@ncua.gov.

In support of the agencies' efforts, NCUA Chairman Rodney Hood last week touted credit unions' efforts to support local small businesses and called for regulatory reforms to support growth.

"Financial institutions like credit unions provide the oxygen small businesses need when they make investments through lending," Hood said at a symposium. "To do this, we need to bring fresh thinking to the table. How can we build a regulatory system that's effective without being excessive? How can we stimulate more commercial lending to support more growth in the small business sector?"

NAFCU works closely with the SBA to expand access to credit union small-dollar loans to small businesses across the nation. NAFCU and the SBA in September signed a new Strategic Alliance Memorandum (SAM) to strengthen their partnership. The association's September-October edition of The NAFCU Journal also includes a feature on SBA loan programs and how credit unions have seen success by participating in them.