Improving credit unions’ environment will benefit Main Street

September 16, 2025

The House Financial Services Committee’s focus on community financial services is appreciated, but it should act specifically to ensure credit unions can increase services to those who need it America’s Credit Unions President/CEO Jim Nussle told the Committee in a letter yesterday. The committee is scheduled to mark up several pieces of community banking legislation starting Tuesday.  

Prior to the markup, America’s Credit Unions encouraged the committee to:

  1. Extend the loan maturity limit for credit unions. The bipartisan Expanding Access to Lending Options Act (H.R. 4167) would amend the Federal Credit Union Act to allow the NCUA Board to establish longer maturities for certain types of loans as it deems appropriate;
  2. Expand options for credit union investments by amending the Federal Credit Union Act to allow federal credit unions to invest in areas including corporate debt and asset-backed securities;
  3. Provide greater flexibility for the credit union interest rate ceiling by raising the cap to 18% (up from the current 15%) and set the temporary maximal interest rate be a floating rate based on an index established by the NCUA Board;
  4. Advance the bipartisan Increasing Credit Union Lending for Business Growth Act (H.R. 1791) and Veterans Member Business Loan Act (H.R. 507). H.R. 1791 would increase the threshold for what counts as a member business loan under the cap to $100,000 (up from the current $50,000). H.R. 507 would exempt loans to veteran-owned small businesses from the cap;
  5. Make it easier for credit unions to join a Federal Home Loan Bank by updating the definition of Community Financial Institution to include credit unions and to raise its statutory threshold to ($10 billion in assets (up from the current $1 billion in assets); and
  6. Ensure credit union parity with any potential capital relief and reforms to improve the capital environment for community banks. 

The letter also noted America’s Credit Unions support for statutory structural reforms to the CFPB, including moving its leadership to a bipartisan commission and providing additional clarifications in authorities. 

Read the letter here