Newsroom
NAFCU’s advocacy achieves success for CUs amid unprecedented year
NAFCU’s commitment to securing regulatory relief and flexibility for credit unions became even more important this year as the industry faced countless operational challenges stemming from the coronavirus pandemic. The association’s bold advocacy strategy secured several key wins throughout 2020 to ensure credit unions and their 123 million members’ needs were addressed amid the pandemic and beyond.
Here's a look at some of the key wins that came from NAFCU’s efforts:
The Small Business Administration’s paycheck protection program (PPP)
NAFCU ensured the paycheck protection program (PPP) included credit unions as lenders and secured set-aside funding to meet credit union members' small business loan needs. In addition, the recent Phase 4 coronavirus relief package included NAFCU-sought language to simplify the forgiveness process for loans under $150,000 and to provide protections for lenders, as well as $15 billion in set asides for small, community-based lenders, including credit unions with less than $10 million in assets.
The Phase 4 package also repeals the CARES Act provision that required PPP borrowers to deduct from their forgivable amount economic injury disaster loan (EIDL) advances, which NAFCU had raised concerns about.
CECL
This year, legislation to heed NAFCU’s long-standing call to eliminate the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s (FASB) current expected credit loss (CECL) standard was introduced and NCUA Board Chairman Rodney Hood expressed support for an exemption for credit unions under the standard many times, arguing that its compliance costs outweigh its benefits. The association continues to work with both FASB and the NCUA to obtain relief for credit unions under CECL. Of note, the Phase 4 package further extends the optional, temporary relief from the CECL standard enacted under the CARES Act.
SCOTUS decisions
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the lawsuit brought by the American Bankers Association (ABA) against the NCUA over the agency’s 2016 field of membership (FOM) rule, putting an end to years of litigation. NAFCU stood by the NCUA throughout the lawsuit and is supportive of the agency’s efforts to modernize FOM rules to ensure credit unions can effectively serve communities in need.
The Supreme Court also issued its decision in the lawsuit brought by Selia Law challenging the CFPB’s single-director structure, determining that it is unconstitutional. NAFCU has long held that the CFPB's leadership structure should be reformed to a commission-based model to ensure transparency and accountability and supported legislative efforts to do so. The association has also supported calls to subject the bureau to congressional appropriations oversight.
Regulation D
The Federal Reserve earlier this year issued an interim final rule to amend Regulation D and remove the six-per-month transaction limit on transferring between savings and checking accounts. The association had previously recommended that the transfer limit be eliminated and, earlier this year, NAFCU President and CEO Dan Berger asked the Fed to remove it to provide credit unions with relief amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Housing finance reform
A leader in advocating for housing finance reform, NAFCU obtained a four-month limit from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) on the number of principal and interest payments credit unions must cover on behalf of their borrowers in forbearance for government-backed mortgage loan
In addition, the Phase 4 coronavirus relief and fiscal year 2021 funding omnibus package included several other NAFCU-sought extensions to provisions that provide additional support for credit unions:
- Troubled debt restructuring: Under the CARES Act, credit unions were granted NAFCU-sought flexibility to suspend the requirements to classify certain loan modifications as TDR and the flexibility has been extended through to Jan. 1, 2022, or 60 days after the coronavirus national emergency is terminated (whichever is earliest); and
- Central Liquidity Facility (CLF): The CARES Act allowed the NCUA to make temporary changes to the CLF in order to enhance credit unions' ability to access and use the facility; the NCUA in April issued an interim final rule to do so. NAFCU has advocated that changes made to the CLF are made permanent, however the Phase 4 package extends the flexibility provided to the NCUA through Dec. 31, 2021.
Throughout 2020, the association secured several high-profile meetings with lawmakers, regulators, and administration officials – both in person before the pandemic and virtually - to advocate credit unions' position on these issues and more. See more of NAFCU's 2020 accomplishments.
Share This
Related Resources
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 2024-04-25 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 2024-04-24 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.