Even though they weren't invited to testify-and the banking trade associations were-CUNA and NAFCU sent letters to a Senate subcommittee urging lawmakers to raise the cap on member business lending.
Raising the cap from 12.25% of assets to 25% of assets would "help take an important step in the recovery of the small business community and the overall economy," NAFCU Executive Vice President B. Dan Berger wrote to members of the Senate Banking Committee.
That panel's Subcommittee on Economic Policy is holding a hearing today, which includes testimony from representatives of the ABA and the Independent Community Bankers Association.
CUNA President/CEO Dan Mica wrote that passing such legislation would enable credit unions to "lend an additional $10 billion to small businesses, helping them create over 100,000 new jobs," in the first year. He added that increased business lending "would have a negligible effect on credit union lending to consumers."
In the House, 58 lawmakers from both parties wrote House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) to urge them to include a provision to raise the cap in any jobs-creation legislation that the chamber takes up.
