An Open Letter to the 116th Congress

To the 116th Congress:

Welcome to Washington! Thirteen years ago, I joined the credit union industry and ever since I have been honored to advocate on behalf of these Main Street financial institutions that always put their members and communities first.

Did you know the median credit union manages $33 million in assets and has eight full-time employees, compared to banks’ average of $210 million in assets and 45 full-time employees?

What the credit union industry may lack in size, it makes up for through deeper, more personal member relationships, better rates and lower fees compared to their counterparts in the banking industry. Look no further than the 115 million Americans who currently are a member of a credit union – a 4.3% increase over the past year – as an illustration of the good work credit unions do to advance the financial well-being of their members.

As member-owned financial institutions, credit unions work to provide affordable loans and financial products to those looking to finance a family home, a car to get to work or start a small business. For credit unions, every loan made and every dollar earned serves their membership and is reinvested into their local community. More so, there are more than 5,000 credit unions serving every congressional district and community across America.

As the 116th Congress gets underway, NAFCU has been active on Capitol Hill, meeting many of you in the process. To both new and seasoned members of Congress, we look forward to working alongside you to advance good bipartisan policy. Most importantly, we look forward to fostering an open dialogue, one that is respectful, supportive and cooperative.

With that in mind, and with a host of pressing issues to tackle, it is important we ensure the existence of a legislative and regulatory environment that allows credit unions the opportunity to grow, thrive and successfully serve their membership.

To this end, we will:

• Support legislation and regulation that helps credit unions grow and better serve their membership;
• Advocate for the NCUA to continue to be the sole regulator of credit unions;
• Fight for clear, streamlined regulations that allow credit unions to put more resources towards serving their 115 million members;
• Promote innovation, the creation of national data security standards and push back against big banks’ baseless attacks on credit unions;
• Encourage government accountability, including reducing the NCUA’s overall operating budget and establishing a commission at the CFPB, among other reforms; and,
• Work to preserve the credit union tax exemption, which saves American consumers $16 billion annually, protects nearly one million jobs and keeps the focus on helping credit union members – not shareholders and profits.

A new Congress is an exciting time, and we don’t take for granted the massive undertaking you have in front of you. We are ready to work with you – a bipartisan Congress – on issues critical to our members and American consumers.

We’re ready to help.

B. Dan Berger is President/CEO of NAFCU. He can be reached at 703-522-4770 or dberger@nafcu.org.