Newsroom
House passes HEROES Act; NAFCU pushes for CU relief
The House Friday, on a 208-199 vote, passed a $3 trillion stimulus bill, the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act, with voting mainly along party lines. The bill, offered by House Democratic leadership, now heads to the Senate, where it is not expected to receive consideration by the Republican-led chamber. The Senate will likely propose its own relief package in the coming weeks.
“The House of Representatives' willingness to act to take the lead on the first step of the next phase of pandemic relief is commendable,” said NAFCU President and CEO Dan Berger. “While there are provisions in the HEROES Act that we applaud, such as changes to existing SBA lending programs and an additional $1 billion to the CDFI Fund, there are others that raise more concerns than they address. The legislation’s broad mandated blanket loan forbearance provisions and new limits on debt collection are among those we think require a closer look, as they could threaten to deepen our economic recession by posing safety and soundness risks to lenders if enacted.
“There are other proposals that already have bipartisan support but were not included in the HEROES Act, such as relief from the credit union member business lending cap and allowing credit unions greater flexibility in their lending. These would without a doubt help small businesses and consumers. NAFCU will continue working with Congress and the administration throughout this process to ensure credit unions can better serve their members, small businesses and local communities amid the pandemic," Berger concluded.
As negotiations continue between Democrats and Republicans in the two chambers and the administration on additional relief measures, NAFCU will continue working with lawmakers to address credit unions' concerns and provide more relief to the industry. The association is specifically pushing for:
- relief from the arbitrary member business lending cap (legislation to do so has been introduced in both chambers);
- an extension to the outdated 15-year loan maturity limit;
- additional capital relief;
- additional funding for the NCUA's Community Development Revolving Loan Fund (CDRLF) and Treasury's Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund;
- making permanent the changes to the NCUA's Central Liquidity Facility to ensure credit unions have access to needed liquidity; and
- allowing all credit unions to add underserved areas to their fields of membership.
House Democrats unveiled the proposal for the next phase of coronavirus relief last week. The HEROES Act focuses on providing assistance to workers, renters and homeowners, state and local governments, and more.
While the bill does not contain certain provisions NAFCU has advocated against including, it does broaden mortgage forbearance to all single-family covered mortgages, not just those backed by the government, and includes the potential for a blanket restriction on first party debt collection during a national emergency, which could put unnecessary stress on credit unions. Read more about the forbearance provisions.
The HEROES Act makes several changes to the PPP, such as eliminating the requirement that at least 75 percent of the PPP loan forgivable amount must be used toward payroll; and clarifying the "hold harmless" provision for lenders, for which NAFCU has advocated.
Last week, Berger wrote to House leadership to share credit unions' perspective on the proposed HEROES Act. He emphasized that the HEROES Act should be "balanced to not harm credit unions' ability to serve their members," and raised concerns with some of the provisions which may have unintended consequences.
Subscribe to NAFCU Today for need to know updates as the association works to keep credit unions informed of developments.
Share This
Related Resources
Add to Calendar 2024-04-25 14:00:00 2024-04-25 14:00:00 Unifying Two Different Executive Benefits Programs About the Webinar In part one we discussed how to retain key positions during a time of transition. In part two, we will look at how to combine executive benefits programs from two different organizations into a single high-performing program. Evaluating each program includes many different facets, from strategy and expense to performance and servicing. This session will provide important considerations, whether or not you have pending M&A activity. Key Takeaways: Is the plan design both retentive and efficient? Is the benefit expense properly mitigated? Does the legal agreement reflect the board’s intent? View On-Demand Web NAFCU digital@nafcu.org America/New_York public
Unifying Two Different Executive Benefits Programs
preferred partner
Gallagher
Webinar
Add to Calendar 2024-04-25 14:00:00 2024-04-25 14:00:00 ChatGPT: What AI can do for you! ChatGPT has been created with one main objective – to predict the next word in a sentence, based on what's typically happened in the gigabytes of text data that it's been trained on. Did you ever hear of the saying, “People fear the unknown?” Artificial intelligence scares people, but it is the future, and you need to understand the tools and resources it offers. It’s also about saving time, that’s what technology and in this case, artificial intelligence can do for you. If you want to save time and have a better quality of life, this training is for you. Once you give ChatGPT a question or prompt, it passes through the AI model and the chatbot produces a response based on the information you've given and how that fits into its vast amount of training data. It's during this training that ChatGPT has learned what word, or sequence of words, typically follows the last one in a given context. During this webinar, ChatGPT: What AI can do for you, you’ll discover the background, purpose, usability, and the pros and cons. Don't miss this opportunity! Key Takeaways Learn the background of AI Understand the purpose of AI Identify the pros and cons Register Now $295 Members | $395 Nonmembers(Additional $50 for USB)One registration gives your entire team access to the live webinar and on-demand recording until April 25, 2025Go to the Online Training Center to access the webinar after purchase » Who Should Attend NCRMs Risk titles Education Credits NCRMs will recieve 1.0 CEUs for participating in this webinar Web NAFCU digital@nafcu.org America/New_York public
ChatGPT: What AI can do for you!
Credits: NCRM
Webinar
Add to Calendar 2024-04-24 14:00:00 2024-04-24 14:00:00 Optimize Liquidity, Maximize Loan Growth: The Network Lending Advantage About The Webinar Join us to learn more about network lending, a cooperative model allowing credit unions to optimize liquidity and achieve loan growth. Discover how credit unions can participate in loan pools with other institutions, allowing them to diversify portfolios, access loans with potentially lower risk and higher yields, and expand lending capacity without necessarily needing a surge in deposits. Delve into how credit unions can pool their resources, set common underwriting and pricing standards, and collectively originate, buy, and sell loans to optimize liquidity management. Hear from your peers about best practices, case studies, and practical strategies to harness the full potential of network lending and how it's helped their credit unions. Don't miss this valuable opportunity to learn how to strengthen your credit union's position in today’s competitive environment. Key Takeaways: How network lending differs from traditional lending The benefits of participating in loan pools with other credit unions How credit unions can set common underwriting and pricing standards and collectively originate, buy and sell loans to optimize liquidity management Why network lending is critical to loan growth Watch On-Demand Web NAFCU digital@nafcu.org America/New_York public
Optimize Liquidity, Maximize Loan Growth: The Network Lending Advantage
preferred partner
LendKey
Webinar
Add to Calendar 2024-04-23 14:00:00 2024-04-23 14:00:00 Monitoring the Latest Litigation Risks Credit unions’ operations pose litigation risks, with more of these cases being filed as class action lawsuits. In this Monitoring the Latest Litigation Risks for Credit Unions webinar, you’ll review some of the specific kinds of lawsuits impacting credit unions and what potential claims could be on the horizon. You’ll also examine some options for mitigating risks. Key Takeaways Review the current lawsuit trends. Understand the potential claims risks Explore options for mitigating risks. Register Now $295 Members | $395 Nonmembers(Additional $50 for USB)One registration gives your entire team access to the live webinar and on-demand recording until April 23, 2025Go to the Online Training Center to access the webinar after purchase » Who Should Attend NCCOs NCRMs Compliance and risk titles Education Credits NCRMs will recieve 1.0 CEUs for participating in this webinar NCCOs will recieve 1.0 CEUs for participating in this webinar Web NAFCU digital@nafcu.org America/New_York public
Monitoring the Latest Litigation Risks
Credits: NCCO, NCRM
Webinar
Get daily updates.
Subscribe to NAFCU today.