Regarding digital assets, NAFCU successfully fought to ensure credit unions were included in stablecoin legislation discussion after the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets excluded the industry. NAFCU also stopped efforts to expand the Small Business Administration’s direct lending authority, which would have undermined private sector lending. NAFCU’s advocacy team also stopped legislation to limit overdraft protection programs, allowing for a fair, transparent, and competitive market for consumer financial services. WITH REGULATORS On the regulatory front, NAFCU strongly opposed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) efforts to expand the scope of Regulation E and hold financial institutions liable for fraud on peer-to-peer platforms. NAFCU also advocated for the CFPB to consider additional ways to supervise nonbank fintech companies, limiting risks to consumers and creating a fairer regulatory environment. NAFCU led efforts to ensure the NCUA allowed credit unions to use distributed ledger technologies and successfully secured the agency’s release of additional guidance on how credit unions can better adopt digital assets and emerging financial technologies. Ahead of most credit unions’ implementation deadline for the Current Expected Credit Losses (CECL) standard, NAFCU’s efforts obtained additional guidance and tools from the NCUA to support industry compliance. NAFCU also advocated for additional flexibility and guidance for the NCUA on interest rate risk, including requesting the agency to raise the permissible interest rate ceiling to help mitigate interest rate risk during a difficult economic environment. Additionally, NAFCU’s ongoing advocacy efforts on field of membership reforms, subordinated debt, lending opportunities, and regulatory relief have set the industry up for continued success in 2023. 24 THE NAFCU JOURNAL July–August 2023
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