WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Credit Union representatives from across the country are in Washington, DC, this week, meeting with lawmakers as part of the National Credit Union Administration's annual Government Affairs Conference.
Kyle Frick, with Mid-Oregon Credit Union, has made the trip before. With a new administration now in charge, he says this one is different. "A lot of people are just happy to see things moving in a positive direction. And, there seems to be a lot of hope and positive feelings right now, and we’re feeling that as well. It does seem a little bit more friendly, right now, and there’s a lot of work to be done."
Frick and other Oregon credit union reps met with Congressman Greg Walden and Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, Wednesday. He says there’s a lot of optimism surrounding the proposed roll-back of the 2010 Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. "The original intent was for them to have those regulations apply to banks that are over $10 billion in assets and they weren’t really applied to credit unions but we’re getting caught in all of those things. For us, out in the rural areas where we have different economic situations, and we’re making loans to people because we know them, and we do good underwriting; they don’t necessarily apply to us." Frick says as the new Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Walden will oversee discussions on several banking-related issues, like cyber security and data breaches.
Frick and others from Oregon also met with Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley to discuss lending for affordable housing projects. He tells KBND News, "There’s a ton of things happening in regulatory reform. Not deregulating, but tailoring the regulations to allow us to continue to grow and provide loans for our members. Particularly for mortgage loans and lending, there’s just a lot of red tape that we’re trying to clear out of the way." To listen to our full conversation with Kyle Frick, click HERE or visit our Podcast page.
