Rep. Brad Sherman, a member of the House Financial Services Committee, urged his colleague who is writing the jobs creation bill to include in it an increase in the cap on member business lending.
Credit unions are "ready to expand their business lending," and lifting the cap would result in credit unions expanding their business lending by $10 billion in the first year and create 10,000 new jobs, Sherman (D-Calif.) wrote House Education Committee Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.).
Reps. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.) and Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) have introduced legislation allowing credit unions to make business loans totaling up to 25% of their assets, an increase from the current cap of 12.25%. It would also raise the minimum dollar amount for counting a loan toward the MBL ceiling from the current $50,000 to $250,000 and exempt from the ceiling member business loans made to qualifying underserved areas and to nonprofit religious organizations
A similar measure has been introduced in the Senate by Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) and a bipartisan group of colleagues
Officials of CUNA and NAFCU praised Sherman's letter and said they were working to get the cap increase included in jobs creation legislation that House and Senate leaders have talked about getting through Congress early this year.
