Grassroots Alert, but not the kind you're hoping for

The American Bankers Association (ABA) continues its very active lobbying campaign against loosening legislative constraints on credit union small business lending authority. Below is another email circulated on March 25th, encouraging bank executives to write their representatives in opposition of raising the member business loan (MBL) cap.

The ABA has used this strategy several times before. Please refer to our analysis of the last ABA email that we received.

Opposition to credit unions will not stop, so, neither can credit unions. If you believe that ABA’s analysis to be incorrect, or if you believe that the credit union industry can responsibly handle increased MBL authority (as it did for 80 years prior to the cap), then you must push for positive change and continue to tell the story of small business lending at your credit union.

GRASSROOTS ALERT
ABA: Letters Needed to Oppose Including CU Business-Lending Cap Increase in Jobs Bill
ABA today is urging all bankers and bank employees to use its automated system to send customized letters to their House and Senate members, asking them to oppose including a proposal in an upcoming jobs-creation bill that would increase the credit union business-lending cap from 12.25 percent of a credit union’s total assets to 25 percent.

The timing of the jobs bill is uncertain, but the administration’s desire to support the increase is gaining traction in the Treasury Department. The credit union industry has sought to increase the business-lending cap through legislation (H.R. 3380 and S. 2919) in both the House and Senate, and has attempted to include the proposal in previous jobs packages that have passed both chambers.

Despite the fact that only 37 of the nearly 7,600 credits unions — or about one-half of 1 percent — would benefit from a cap increase, many members of Congress, and now apparently the administration, believe that it will help more small businesses get loans. Raising the business-lending cap would primarily help large, nontraditional, growth-oriented credit unions that have abandoned their mission of serving people of modest means, and it would substantially increase such credit unions’ risk exposure. Please send a letter.