ABA President and CEO Frank Keating in an August 8 letter to NCUA Chairman Debbie Matz stated the devastation from the drought “should not be used as cover for an elimination of the member business loan cap through an expansion of the low-income designation for more than 1,000 eligible credit unions.”
Keating wrote: “While the drought is temporary, the extension of the low-income designation is permanent and skirts congressional intent.”
Keating noted that by NCUA’s own estimates, less than half of the newly eligible low-income credit unions are in drought-stricken areas of the country. He also criticized NCUA for not verifying that LICUs are actually lending to members in low- and moderate-income census tracts, and he cited two examples of credit unions with LICU designations that have no branches in a low-income census tract.
“These examples are why ABA is concerned that the NCUA has taken advantage of a natural disaster to sidestep and leapfrog Congress,” Keating said. “Unfortunately, this is just one more example to add to NCUA’s long history of overreaching and expansive interpretations of statute.”
Read the letter.
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I hate to do this, but as a CEO of a CU, I totally agree with you. If the situation were reversed, I know we'd be fighting it.
ReplyDeleteSo what? Banks have used disasters for cover for decades. There has been foot dragging in Congress over this proposed law for years, and if this is the only way to get something done, then so be it.
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