The Oklahoma Credit Union Foundation has deployed its Tornado Disaster Relief Fund to assist credit union people with the impact of tornadoes that occurred Sunday and Monday in Shawnee and Moore.

Three credit unions in Moore, Okla., saw different outcomes when Monday's EF5 tornado swept through with 200 mile-per-hour winds that leveled thousands of homes and businesses in an area as much as two miles wide and 17 miles long.

Qualified mortgage rules must be changed to ensure credit unions will be able to meet their members' borrowing needs in a way that minimizes risk and default, CUNA President/CEO Bill Cheney wrote in a letter submitted to the U.S. Congress on Tuesday.

"The current potential threat of the taxation on credit unions is the highest it has ever been in my 20 years that I have been involved in the movement," longtime member of Congress and former CUNA CEO Dan Mica wrote in a CUinsight.com piece.

For nearly two dozen staff and members of Tinker FCU's branch in Moore, Okla., Monday afternoon had its moment of reckoning. A half-mile wide tornado bore down on the branch and they took cover in the credit union's safe deposit box vault. After it was over, they were safe and sound, and the only thing left standing was the vault.

In the wake of this week's tornadoes, the National Credit Union Administration has activated its disaster relief policy to aid impacted credit unions and their members.

Low-income credit unions can now apply for a total of $1.18 million in grants to help support their financial literacy, product development, collaboration, staff and board member training, office relocation and computer modernization efforts, the National Credit Union Administration said on Tuesday.

Credit unions should have the authority to make more loans to small businesses, said U.S. Rep. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), who noted credit unions' auto lending during the darkest days of the financial crisis, at the Michigan Credit Union League & Affiliates Annual Convention and exposition.

Student loans increased nearly 27%, to $11.7 billion in February from $9.2 billion in February 2012, according to Equifax's most recent National Consumer Credit Trends Report.