According to Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, “Starbucks represents something beyond a cup of coffee.”

Likewise, we believe credit unions represent more than just another financial institution. Credit unions help to make dreams a reality, whether that is a new home, a new car or growing a business. We believe our commitment to provide our credit union members with the very best in federal advocacy, education and compliance assistance can help credit unions thrive so they can focus on fulfilling their members’ financial needs.

This year, our steadfast advocacy efforts before Congress, regulators and the administration, as well as our new online training and compliance resources, boosted the industry as well as the association. NAFCU’s membership voted to grant federally-insured, state-chartered credit unions full membership in the association was a major milestone. This action bolstered the association’s objective of advancing all federally-insured credit unions.

While preserving credit unions’ tax exemption continues to be our top legislative priority, here are some highlights of our recent efforts.

Advocacy

Based on NAFCU’s and its members’ efforts, a bipartisan majority of members from both the House and Senate wrote CFPB Director Richard Cordray and urged him to do more to provide regulatory relief to credit unions via the bureau’s Dodd-Frank Act authority. The House Appropriations Committee, in its own report accompanying the financial services spending bill, also addressed this issue and the need for credit union relief from the Federal Communications Commission’s auto-dialing order under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) also unveiled the Financial Creating Hope and Opportunity for Investors, Consumers and Entrepreneurs (CHOICE) Act (H.R. 5983). It is a comprehensive regulatory relief bill with a number of NAFCU-backed measures. The legislation passed the committee in September.

NAFCU has also fought particularly hard to repeal the Durbin amendment on interchange. This year, Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas) introduced NAFCU-backed legislation (H.R. 5465) to repeal the Durbin amendment on interchange. That legislative language was subsequently incorporated into the Financial CHOICE Act (H.R. 5983). The association will continue its efforts with the new Congress in January.

On the regulatory front, we saw some significant progress with the NCUA. We continued to advocate for greater transparency in the NCUA’s budget process. At NAFCU’s 49th Annual Conference in June, NCUA Board Chairman Rick Metsger announced that the agency was returning to the practice of holding public budget briefings for the industry. As I pointed out in my comments during the agency’s October briefing, the NCUA’s ever-increasing budget and the pace of growth was unjustified. I urged the agency to find cost savings wherever possible.

In addition, the NCUA finalized its member-business lending rule this year, eliminating credit unions’ personal guarantee requirement and, effective Jan. 1, eliminating the waiver process. NAFCU praised the rule, which eases the regulatory burden on credit unions and allows them the independence to safely and soundly address the needs of their small business members.

We also announced a joint effort with CUNA to challenge a lawsuit filed this October by the Independent Community Bankers of America against the NCUA over its member business lending rule.

In October, the NCUA board finalized its field of membership rule and issued a new proposal raising to 10 million the population cap for well-defined communities. The rule also allows credit unions seeking community charter expansions to present a narrative as to why certain areas would qualify for inclusion.

NAFCU will continue to push the NCUA to provide credit unions with more FOM relief. This would include the elimination or increase of core-based statistical area population limits, the creation of a formal notification process for credit union FOM-related applications and the streamlining of the merger authorization process.

On the legislative side, NAFCU backed the Financial Services for the Underserved Act of 2016 (H.R. 5541). The legislation would give individuals living in underserved and low-income communities expanded access to federal credit unions. The bill was introduced this summer by Reps. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) and Donald Norcross (D-N.J.). NAFCU will continue to press this issue next year.

The NCUA also announced its efforts to modernize the examination and supervision program, including the call report system. The NCUA said it hopes to strengthen its onsite examination and off-site monitoring, facilitate better industry trends and comparisons between institutions and minimize the reporting burden on federally-insured credit unions. NAFCU has written the agency with recommendations of how the program can be improved for credit unions.

In addition, the NCUA announced in October that well-run, healthy credit unions with assets of less than $1 billion could be moved to an extended examination cycle beginning next year. NAFCU continues to press for such relief for all well-run credit unions.

Our advocacy was not limited to our industry. When the news of the Wells Fargo scandal broke, we were quick to champion the credit union difference and continued to make the distinction as the issue developed.

Education and Compliance Assistance

In our constantly evolving regulatory environment, there always seems to be something new to be learned. This year, NAFCU added several new compliance offerings to its lineup. They included a Bank Secrecy Act Seminar; an online training subscription that covers the 10 most challenging compliance topics, including BSA, the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, data security and more; and a complimentary mortgage symposium, which was held in conjunction with NAFCU’s Annual Conference.

Additionally, NAFCU’s compliance team published a Military Lending Act Guide to provide members with analysis of the Department of Defense’s rule, which went into effect Oct. 3. The team also created a user-friendly, interactive workbook for credit unions using the FFIEC’s cybersecurity assessment tool.

NAFCU launched a revised Board of Directors Online Training Subscription. It now contains new modules and exams board members can complete to become NAFCU Certified Volunteer Experts. The 11 new modules within the training subscription are designed and delivered by NAFCU EVP and COO Anthony Demangone.

Conclusion

While 2016 was a year of remarkable progress, our work is not done yet. We want to continue to advance the credit union difference and ensure everyone knows credit unions are unique and not like any other financial institution.

We look forward to working with the incoming administration and new members of the 115th Congress. I am honored and humbled to be leading this extraordinary organization into our 50th anniversary. I am thrilled at the possibilities of more outstanding achievements with your continued help in our golden year. We could not have reached this milestone without credit unions’ exemplary standard of excellence and continued focus on credit union members’ best interest. Thank you for your exceptional contribution to our success. With your support, we are poised for great accomplishments in 2017!

B. Dan Berger is president/CEO of NAFCU. He can be reached at 703-522-4770 or dberger@nafcu.org.

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Credit Unions: More Than Just Another Financial Institution

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