Small business owners, small business trade groups and business think-tank representatives will join CUNA and credit unions next week to press Capitol Hill-based legislators to approve a member business lending cap increase for credit unions.

Legislators that are looking for new ways to fight burdensome government regulations "can--and should--start by looking at credit union lending," Eli Lehrer, vice president of the Chicago-based think tank The Heartland Institute, said in a Thursday Huffington Post editorial.

Basel III guidelines on financial institution capital levels may have been drafted in response to the negative impact large banks made on the economic crisis, but credit unions and other financial cooperatives likely will be included in any resulting regulation. How credit unions manage member shares relative to their capital requirements could determine how significant the impact is.

The CUNA compliance team Thursday launched the first edition of its new compliance tool for credit unions--a monthly summary of vital compliance issues--all drawn from CUNA's highly followed CompBlog.