On a mostly party-line vote, the Senate voted today to spend no more than 30 additional hours debating the bill that will overhaul the regulation of financial services.
The final vote could come as early as this evening.
The vote to limit further debate was 60-40. Three Republicans joined Democrats to support the measure and two Democrats joined with 40 Republicans in opposing it.
It's not clear whether there will be a manager's amendment that will deal with issues such as placing the NCUA Chairman on the council aimed at determining systemic risk. Also, it hasn't been determined if there will be a change in the bill that CUNA and NAFCU say would prevent unions from offering wire transfer services. The associations say that it would hurt U.S.-based financial institutions because it would classify certain transfer services-such as Fedwire and ACH-as remittance services and make institutions that provide them liable for disclosing all costs up front.
Most credit unions will be exempt from additional layer of examination by the new entity regulating consumer financial products but all credit unions will have to comply with rules and regulations issued by the regulator.
Credit unions lost a battle when the Senate approved an amendment that will restrict interchange fees.
The provision on interchange is not contained in the bill passed by the House last December. The House and Senate bills will have to be reconciled, probably in a conference committee.
