Financial services providers and trade advocates have been watching the frenzy of activity among federal regulators and in Congress with great interest and have been actively pushing for changes aimed at benefiting their businesses.
In this roundup are some of the latest policy stances highlighted by financial trade organizations, as well as other news:
ICBA supports FDIC rule withdrawals
The Independent Community Bankers of America applauded the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s withdrawal of three rulemaking measures aimed at: revising its brokered deposits framework so more deposits would be considered brokered and fewer would be considered core deposits; imposing new diversity and independence requirements on bank boards; and applying new incentive-based compensation standards to community banks despite a lack of support from all of the regulatory agencies that must participate in the rulemaking according to statute. Learn more about the trade group’s views here.
ACU stumps to preserve credit union tax exemption
America’s Credit Unions President and CEO Jim Nussle urged members of his national trade organization to “stand up with a unified voice” by calling upon Congress to disregard arguments against maintaining the federal tax exemption for federally insured credit unions. Nussle asserted the value of the credit union tax exemption “is being questioned right when credit unions are needed the most to support members and get the economy back on track” and argued that Congress needs to understand that changing the tax status for credit unions would effectively raise taxes for approximately 140 million Americans. Read more here.
MBA reports uptick in mortgage applications
Mortgage applications increased 20.4 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) weekly mortgage applications survey for the week ending Feb. 28. MBA measures mortgage loan application volume using its market composite index. On an unadjusted basis, compared to the previous week, the index increased 22 percent while the refinance index increased 37 percent and was 83 percent higher than the same week a year before. The purchase index increased 9 percent on an adjusted basis and 12 percent on an unadjusted basis for the week, and was 2 percent higher than it was the same week one year prior. Read more here.
Trade groups call for CISA to rescind, reissue cyber incident rule
A coalition of four financial industry trade groups wrote to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency asking it to rescind and reissue its proposed cyber incident reporting rule implementing the Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act. The groups asserted the proposed rule diverges from congressional intent, imposes unnecessary burdens and shifts critical cybersecurity resources away from defending institutions and their customers. The letter was endorsed by the American Bankers Association, the Bank Policy Institute, the Institute of International Bankers, and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association. Read more here.