A press report today indicates that NCUA Board Member Gigi Hyland has suggested credit unions “should crawl before they walk” when increasing their capacity to make business loans to members, and that Congress should consider raising the current cap on member business loans of 12.25 percent of assets “in stages” for safety and soundness reasons.

CUNA President and CEO Dan Mica issued the following statement:

“What Board Member Hyland suggests is addressed in the Kanjorski-Royce bill by raising the business lending cap to only 25 percent. We would like to see the cap taken off of member business lending by credit unions, because it will help the economy and because credit unions have proven themselves responsible lenders. HR 3380 is an important step in that direction. Board Member Hyland, like the other members of the NCUA Board, is clearly performing her due diligence as a regulator to ensure that credit unions do the job right when they begin making more business loans. However, the agency has a number of tools today at its disposal to ensure that happens. We continue to support the Kanjorski-Royce initiative and urge other members of Congress to support the bill as well so that credit unions can do more to assist our nation's small businesses.”