On a voice vote following minimal debate, the House today approved a measure giving credit unions and other financial institutions more flexibility on providing notification to consumers about non-credit card accounts.
At issue is a provision of the Credit Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act, which took effect on Aug. 21, that requires statements on open-end accounts be delivered 21 days before they are due. Some credit unions have said they are facing logistical and other obstacles that are making compliance difficult.
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said the measure is needed to help credit unions "who are a very important part of this country."
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The measure's sponsor, Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), said it was needed to allow financial institutions to continue to offer consolidated statements with all of the consumer's accounts listed.
The bill now goes to the Senate and lobbyists for CUNA and NAFCU said they were uncertain when that chamber will consider the measure and whether it will be a stand-alone bill or attached to another piece of legislation.
CUNA and NAFCU have been pushing hard to get the law changed, which the NCUA endorsed. They tried without success to get the Federal Reserve to do it, but the Fed said the change had to be done legislatively.
The trades said that to comply with the law as it is written requires credit unions to move all due dates on loans to later in the month because of the 21-day notice or send out separate periodic statements for every credit card account or line of credit. Those options require costly adjustments, especially because credit unions had only 90 days from the day the law took effect to comply.
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