Two pieces of legislation were introduced earlier this month that address credit union.
The Expanding Financial Access for Underserved Communities Act would help provide financial access to Americans residing in banking deserts by allowing credit unions to expand their fields of membership under certain circumstances. Banking deserts are areas where there is limited access to financial products and services, and banks have closed branches.
The bill includes enhanced oversight of larger credit unions seeking to serve a banking desert to ensure they are regularly engaging with residents and are complying with fair lending and other consumer financial protection laws.
The Central Liquidity Facility Enhancement Act would make permanent reforms Congress temporarily authorized in the CARES Act during the COVID-19 pandemic to allow small credit unions to have easier access to emergency liquidity through the National Credit Union Administration’s (NCUA) Central Liquidity Facility.
Temporary authorization expired in 2021. NCUA Board members have asked Congress to make the reforms permanent to help ensure continued liquidity of the credit union system.
U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), House Financial Services ranking member, reintroduced the bill. Similar bills passed the House of Representatives in the 117th Congress with versions of the legislation making it into the Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act.