Newsroom

Ahead of today's Senate Banking Committee hearing to discuss the response to the coronavirus pandemic and relief needed to recover from ongoing circumstances, NAFCU's Brad Thaler highlighted tools and flexibilities that will allow credit unions to continue to support their members and communities.

“Credit unions have voluntarily implemented programs to protect their members’ financial health, including skipping payments without penalty, waiving fees, low or no-interest loans, loan modifications and no interest accruals,” wrote Thaler, NAFCU's vice president of legislative affairs. “The relief provided by Congress thus far has been helpful in these efforts; however, more must be done to ensure credit unions have the necessary tools to continue to support their members through this crisis.”

In the letter, Thaler highlighted several ways in which the credit union industry has stepped up to help its members impacted by the pandemic and outlined measures to be included in the next coronavirus relief package to support these efforts, including related to:

• flexibility under the Federal Credit Union (FCU) Act to allow credit unions to add underserved areas to their field of membership;
• relief under the member business lending (MBL) cap;
• additional assistance provided to state housing finance agencies to help individuals impacted by the pandemic make home-related payments;
• capital flexibility similar to what banks were provided in the CARES Act;
• additional investment authorities for federal credit unions;
• extending credit unions' loan maturity limits under the FCU Act;
• modernizing the E-SIGN Act; and
• protecting credit unions with liability protections.

Thaler also called for some previous relief provisions to be extended or made permanent, including expanded access to the NCUA's Central Liquidity Facility (CLF), relief from the current expected credit loss (CECL) standard, and changes to Small Business Administration (SBA) loan programs to improve access, and cautioned against some efforts that could hinder credit unions' abilities to serve their members.

Read Thaler's full letter here. The hearing will be available via livestream and is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. Eastern.

NAFCU will continue to work closely with the Biden administration, Congress, and regulators to seek tools that allow credit unions and their members to recover from the pandemic and thrive.