July 17, 2013
The Honorable Jim Jordan
Chairman
House Oversight and Government Reform
Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Job
Creation & Regulatory Affairs
United States House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
The Honorable Matt Cartwright
Ranking Member
House Oversight and Government Reform
Subcommittee on Economic Growth,
Job Creation & Regulatory Affairs
United States House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
Re: The Impact of Dodd-Frank and the need for Regulatory Relief
Dear Chairman Jordan and Ranking Member Cartwright:
On behalf of the National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU), the only trade association that exclusively represents the interests of our nation’s federal credit unions, I write today in conjunction with tomorrow’s hearing, “Regulatory Burdens: The Impact of Dodd-Frank on Community Banking.” NAFCU member credit unions and the nearly 96 million credit union member-owners appreciate the subcommittee’s focus on the regulatory burden faced by community based financial institutions.
As you know, all community based financial services institutions, including credit unions, are struggling under an ever-increasing regulatory burden in the wake of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act [P.L.111-203]. The impact of this growing compliance burden is evident as the number of credit unions continues to decline, dropping by more than 700 institutions since 2009. Credit unions didn’t cause the financial crisis and shouldn’t be caught in the crosshairs of regulations aimed at those entities that did. Unfortunately, that has not been the case thus far. Accordingly, finding ways to cut-down on burdensome and unnecessary regulatory compliance costs is a chief priority of our members. We are pleased to see it is also a priority of the Subcommittee.
Regulatory relief is critical to the survival of credit unions. That is why we shared a five-point plan for credit union regulatory relief with Congress on February 12th of this year (a copy of the NAFCU letter to Congress is enclosed). We look forward to working with you and your staff to ensure that the views of credit unions are conveyed and that the proposals outlined in the attached letter are given due consideration during the 113th Congress.
Thank you for your attention to this important matter. If you have any questions or would like further information about any of these issues, please do not hesitate to contact me or NAFCU’s Vice President of Legislative Affairs Brad Thaler by telephone at (703) 842-2204 or by e-mail at bthaler@nafcu.org.
Sincerely,
B. Dan Berger
Executive Vice President, Government Affairs
cc: Members of the Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Job Creation & Regulatory Affairs