Credit Union Expansion Bill Wrapped into House Package on Financial Inclusion

A bill to allow credit unions to expand into underserved areas is now part of a broader legislative package headed for likely consideration on the U.S. House floor.

The credit union legislation is now wrapped into H.R. 2543, the Financial Services Racial Equity, Inclusion, and Economic Justice Act, according to a version of the bill posted by the House Rules Committee.

The Rules Committee considers ways in which legislation may be changed before it proceeds to consideration by the full House. It announced June 6 that during the week of June 13 it is likely to meet to grant a rule that would provide a structured amendment process for floor consideration of H.R. 2543.

Your League strongly supported the underserved areas bill as a standalone measure, and while we continue to study H.R. 2543, we’ve flagged some proposals within this legislation that need further debate and careful consideration given their potential to add to credit unions’ regulatory burden and hamper our ability to serve members.

“The underserved areas measure is a prime example of commonsense legislation that helps credit unions fulfill our mission of promoting thrift and providing access to affordable credit,” said Virginia Credit Union League President/CEO Carrie Hunt. “And while we continue to advocate for legislation -- such as this underserved areas measure -- to provide meaningful updates to field-of-membership regs, there are a host of other issues of equal importance.”

“We’re fighting for measures that empower credit unions to better compete, such as addressing federally chartered credit unions’ loan maturity limits, ensuring credit unions can provide custodial services for digital assets, and addressing the arbitrary member business lending cap,” said Hunt. “In addition, we want to ensure retailers are paying their fair share of costs related to data breaches and that we finally see enactment of a national data security and data privacy law that is preemptive of state laws.”