Senate Banking to vote on regulatory relief

WASHINGTON (5/4/06)--All eyes are on the Senate Banking Committee today, which has scheduled a vote on a much-anticipated broad-based financial services regulatory relief measure. However, it appears likely that all interested parties will be getting less than they had hoped from the Senate's package, leaving some credit union lobbyists disappointed.

The Senate bill is expected to be much leaner than a recently passed House measure, according to Credit Union National Association (CUNA) Legislative Affairs Vice President Dean Sagar. The Senate version may contain only four substantial provisions of interest to credit unions, as well as a myriad of minor technical changes to language in the Federal Credit Union Act.

He added CUNA is disappointed that more of the House provisions are not included, but said that it is clear that the concerns of the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) were considered equally with the bank regulators'.

Of greatest importance to credit unions is reforming prompt corrective action (PCA) and member business lending (MBL) requirements, neither of which are contained in the recently passed House bill, but are main features of the CUNA-backed Credit Union Regulatory Improvements Act (CURIA, H.R. 2317). CUNA continues to push for these measures wherever it can, according Sagar.

While it remains to be seen how things go today, it appears both bank and credit union wish lists were whittled down to a bare-bones bill that lawmakers hope sheds any controversy that could keep the bill from becoming law this year.

Sagar said CUNA is monitoring reports that lawmakers plan to forego the expected process of a conference committee to work out differences between the House and Senate versions of a regulatory relief bill.

"We are prepared to continue to advocate for more of the House language to be adopted in a final bill—as well as PCA and MBL reform," Sagar said. However, the CUNA lobbyists noted reports that Chairman Michael Oxley (R-Ohio) of the House Financial Services Committee may decide to accept the Senate bill as is, blocking any opportunity for further amendments.

Rep. Michael Oxley (R-Ohio) was reported by Reuters Wednesday as saying, "With any luck, we'll be able to take their version without having to play ping pong and go to conference."

Use the link below to view CUNA's alphabetized guide to legislation.

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Resource Links
Issues 2006: Regulatory Relief
CURIA., Regulatory Relief


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