Mark Sekula, executive vice president and chief lending officer at Randolph-Brooks FCU in Live Oak, Texas, testifies June 16 on behalf of NAFCU before the House Small Business Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Capital Access and Tax on the Dodd-Frank Act’s impact on small business lending.
Credit unions and other small business lenders shouldn’t have to collect demographic information from business borrowers, Randolph-Brooks FCU Executive Vice President Mark Sekula told a House panel on Thursday.
“Credit unions are chartered to serve their members, thus regulatory data collection is intended for institutions that can serve anyone that comes into the doors, and would necessarily paint a broad brush that should not be imposed on credit unions,’’ Sekula told the House Small Business Committee’s Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Capital Access and Taxes.
Sekula, who’s also chief lending officer at the $4.3 billion Texas credit union, who testified on behalf of NAFCU, was supporting a move to repeal a provision in last year’s financial overhaul bill that requires financial institutions to collect the same demographic data for business customers as they already must do for people seeking mortgages.
He was joined in his support by representatives of the ABA and Independent Community Bankers of America. At the same time, at a Senate hearing banks and credit unions were disagreeing about whether credit unions should be allowed to make more business loans.
Sekula also used his testimony to reiterate NAFCU’s support for changes to the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and to limit the bureau’s authority under Unfair and Deceptive Acts or Practices
He argued that the bureau’s authority could be so broad that it “could amount to a blank check for it to delve into any number of areas that create new regulatory burdens for credit unions that make it harder to lend.”
