RSSCredit union advocates are encouraging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to give them favorable treatment over other kinds of financial institutions, such as mortgage lenders. Credit union industry officials are pushing the CFPB to shield credit unions from additional regulator burden.
Speaking at a field hearing in Atlanta Jan. 17, Pam Davis said new CFPB servicing regulations should recognize the differences between credit unions and for-profit institutions. Davis, speaking on behalf of the Credit Union National Association, is vice president of real estate services at Delta Community Credit Union in Atlanta. Speaking about CFPB rules governing mortgage lending and servicing, she said credit unions are “concerned about the regulatory burden imposed on lenders and will be reviewing the new rules from that perspective.”
The CFPB already gives credit unions special exemptions on many requirements. Credit unions will be exempt from periodic statement requirements; general servicing policies, procedures and requirements; early intervention and continuity of contact provisions with delinquent borrowers, and a majority of the loss mitigation procedures, according to CUNA Deputy General Counsel Mary Dunn.
In a letter to the CFPB, the National Association of Federal Credit Unions also demanded special attention for the industry. Responding to a proposed rule regarding loan originator compensation, Tessema Tefferi, NAFCU regulatory affairs counsel, wrote in an Oct. 16, 2012 letter that the association “finds objectionable that the CFPB is, once again, grouping credit unions with mortgage lenders for which certain regulations.”
More recently, Bill Cheney, president and CEO of CUNA, wrote CFPB Director Richard Cordray saying credit unions are different. “There are a number of factors unique to credit unions that support liberal use of the CFPB’s exemption authorities for our members, and we urge the agency to be as proactive as possible in considering how those authorities should be applied.”
Cheney said the CFPB should help credit unions obtain “meaningful regulatory relief.” He said the Bureau should focus on payday lenders and other financial institutions that traditionally have been under-regulated.
