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Ahead of today’s Senate Banking Committee hearing to provide oversight of the federal financial regulators, NAFCU Vice President of Legislative Affairs Brad Thaler reiterated that credit unions stand ready to meet the financial services needs of the American consumer and that the industry remains safe, strong, and reliable.

In addition to NCUA Chairman Todd Harper, Federal Reserve Vice Chairman for Supervision Michael Barr, FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg, and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency Acting Comptroller Michael Hsu will testify before the committee, as well as financial regulators from New York and California.

NAFCU expects much of the discussion will focus on recent bank failures – as it did during the House version of the hearing on Tuesday. In the letter, Thaler highlighted the credit union difference and urged the committee “to ensure that problems from a few banks do not create new burdens for well-run credit unions in an effort to respond to this recent situation.”

Harper is expected to again call for third-party vendor authority for the NCUA. In the letter, Thaler outlined NAFCU’s opposition for Harper’s appeal, noting that the costs would be borne by credit unions – thereby impacting their 135 million members – and explaining “these vendors are already examined by other regulators, and the NCUA has access to information regarding them through the Financial Stability Oversight Council upon which it sits.”

Thaler also outlined several credit union priorities for lawmakers to consider, primarily by modernizing provisions of the Federal Credit Union Act.

NAFCU will monitor today’s hearing, set to begin at 9:30 a.m. Eastern. Stay tuned to NAFCU Today for insights from the discussions.