cuna gac michigan attendee briefing hosted by michigan credit union league february 17, 2010 1

CUNA GAC Michigan Attendee Briefing

Hosted by Michigan Credit Union League

February 17, 2010

1

http://gac.cuna.org/

Instructions to Access Briefing

• For the Web portion go to: https://cuv.on.intercall.com/confmgr/public_unsched.jsp?testType=join&action=joinAdHoc&confId=7828473&bypass=True

• Enter conference ID: 7828473. When prompted select ‘Light Version’.– Note: It is recommended that you login at least 15-20

minutes early to ensure adequate time to upgrade web conference software (if prompted) before joining the session.

• For the telephone portion: Call toll-free: 1-888-742-8686 and enter Conference ID: 7828473.

2

https://cuv.on.intercall.com/confmgr/public_unsched.jsp?testType=join&action=joinAdHoc&confId=7828473&bypass=True

https://cuv.on.intercall.com/confmgr/public_unsched.jsp?testType=join&action=joinAdHoc&confId=7828473&bypass=True

Welcome & Opening Comments

Dave Adams MCUL President & CEO

3

First Time CUNA GAC Attendees• Bridget Brown-Powers, Bay Winds Federal Credit Union (PB)• Carol Domino, Peoples Trust CU (OC)• Rodney Francis, Wildfire CU (MM)• Hank Hubbard, Communicating Arts CU (MW)• Donna Kalmeta, E&A Credit Union (ME)• Julie Kosloskey, Bay Winds Federal Credit Union (PB)• Stephanie Leahy, Cornerstone Community Financial FCU (OC)• Susan Leslie, Co-Op Services CU (MW)• Kim Vermander, Communicating Arts CU (MW)• Carrie Williams, University of Michigan CU (HV)• Lorie Williams, Northland Area FCU (BO)

4

Project Zip Code• Project Zip Code (PZC) is a secure CD-ROM program that

counts your credit union members and matches them by congressional district, state legislative district, and county.

• These numbers are uploaded to CUNA’s PZC Web site and combined with data from credit unions nationwide.

• This data aids in federal and state advocacy efforts, and is useful to credit unions planning ATM expansion or shared branching.

• Your information is completely secure with PZC. In fact, only the number of credit union members is transmitted to the PZC Web site and member data cannot be viewed by anyone outside your organization.

• Since September 2009, 47 Michigan CUs have run PZC identifying 1.4 million members.

• Since 2003, 106 MI CUs have run PZC identifying over 2.4 million members.

5

MI CU Members by Congressional DistrictDistrict Name Credit Unions Total Members US Population

Congressional District 1 1,314 144,124 657,192












Congressional District 13 921 91,604 661,704

Congressional District 14 908 131,142 662,122


Total 2,424,778 9,926,899

6

2010 PAC Lapel Pins

• 2010 MCULAF (State PAC) Lapel Pins will be available for purchase at the CUNA GAC.

• Levels of giving will remain the same as last year: $25, $50, $100, $250 and $500.

• Please see MCUL staff at the hospitality suite to purchase a pin.

• Don’t forget that payroll deduction is an option!

MCUL Staff Contact Numbers

8

Henley Park Hotel926 Massachusetts Avenue, NWWashington, DC, 20001Phone: 202-638-5200 Fax: 202-638-6740

• Dave Adams: 517-304-7777 (mobile)• Marcia Hune: 517-281-2915 (mobile)• Jordan Kingdon: 517-614-6758 (mobile)• Jami Meyer: 517-410-8278 (mobile)• Glenn Ray: 517-763-6276 (mobile)

Conference Agenda HighlightsSunday, February 21, 2010

12:00 - 8:30 p.m. Conference Registration5:00 - 7:00 p.m. MCUL Welcome Reception, Blue Bar and the Wilkes Room (lobby), Henley Park Hotel7:00 - 8:30 p.m. Exhibit Hall Grand Opening 8:30 p.m. Evening Concert

Monday, February 22, 20107:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Conference Registration7:30 – 8:45 a.m. Exhibit Hall Open (continental breakfast served)9:00 – 10:30 a.m. Opening General Session10:30 a.m. – 11:30 p.m. CUNA Annual General Meeting11:00 a.m. – 1:15 p.m. Exhibit Hall Open (lunch provided)1:30 – 2:30 p.m. Legislative and Political Update4:00 – 5:30 p.m. MCUL Hospitality Suite Open, Blue Bar and the Wilkes Room (lobby), Henley Park Hotel6:00 p.m. Herb Wegner Memorial Awards Dinner (Grand Hyatt)

Conference Agenda Highlights

Tuesday, February 23, 20107:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Conference Registration 7:30 – 8:45 a.m. Exhibit Hall Open (continental breakfast)9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. General Session with Alan Greenspan11:30 a.m. – 1:45 p.m. Exhibit Hall Open (lunch provided)2:00 – 4:40 p.m. Breakout Sessions4:45 - 6:00 p.m. Open Reception with NCUA Board of Directors4:45 – 6:00 p.m. Exhibit Hall Closing Session6:00 – 7:30 p.m. MCUL Hospitality Suite Open, Blue Bar and the Wilkes Room (lobby), Henley Park Hotel

**Hill visit changes and a brief legislative discussion will occur at 6:30 p.m.** 9:00 - 10:30 p.m. Late Night at the GAC

Conference Agenda Highlights

• Wednesday, February 24, 20108:00 - 9:30 a.m. Michigan Congressional Breakfast (Capitol Hill)9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Hill Visits 7:00 p.m. Conference Gala Reception/Dance

• Thursday, February 25, 20108:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Conference Registration 9:00 – 11:30 a.m. Concluding General Session –Congressman Dave Camp lead off speaker11:30 a.m. Conference Adjourns

MCUL Congressional Breakfast & Awards Presentation

12

• Wednesday, February 24 from 8 am – 9:30 am. • 2168 (Gold Room) Rayburn House Office

Building. • Full hot breakfast will be served.• 2009 MCUL Federal Lawmaker and Staffer of the

Year Awards will be presented to:– Congressman Dave Camp (R-Midland)– Jonathan Smith, Banking LA to Congressman Gary

Peters (D-Bloomfield Township)

• Please remember to give yourself extra time to get through security.

Capitol Hill Visits

13

• Up-to-date Capitol Hill meeting schedules will be emailed to all Michigan CUNA GAC registrants on Friday, February 19.

• Copies will also be available on site with staff at the hospitality suite in the Henley Park Hotel.

• The Hill meeting schedules are based on credit union headquarter and branch locations.

• If your Hill schedule permits, please feel free to attend your own (home) representative meeting.

• However, because of size limitations, only credit union officials designated to meet with Senators Levin and Stabenow may attend.

• The attendees for these meetings will be finalized Thursday, February 18 when more Hill visit times have been confirmed.

Capitol Hill Visits (Cont’d)

• MCUL staff will function as team leaders in Hill meetings.

• The MCUL is conducting Hill visits Tuesday afternoon and from 9 am – 5 pm on Wednesday.

• As in the past, this is not consistent with the conference schedule but was done to provide a better chance of meeting with our congressional members vs. their staff (Banking LA).

• Remember, we are in Washington to show our grassroots strength to our federal lawmakers. So please attend Hill visits!

14

Hill Meeting Tips • Arrive at least 5 minutes early for your Hill visits and wait in

the hall until other CU officials arrive.• Provide lawmaker and their staff with a copy of federal

legislative issues briefing material included in your packet.• Be prepared – Know the issues!• Remember to take pictures that can be included in your CU

newsletter and in Michigan Monitor. • Be sure to follow-up on your meetings with a “Thank You”

letter or note.• Please pass along any important information learned in your

meetings (and pictures) to MCUL Governmental Affairs staff at [email protected].

15

mailto:[email protected]

Tentative Hill Visit Meeting Schedule(In Order by Date/Meeting Time)

Dist. Lawmaker Day Time Location15 John Dingell Tues. 3 pm 2328 Rayburn

(Mtg. w/Andrew Woelfling)

12 Sander Levin Tues. 4:30 pm 1236 Longworth

6 Fred Upton Wed. 10 am 2183 Rayburn 4 Dave Camp Wed. 11:30 am 341 Cannon9 Gary Peters Wed. Noon 1130 Longworth7 Mark Schauer Wed. 12:45 am 1408 Longworth5 Dale Kildee Wed. 1 pm 2107 Rayburn10 Candice Miller Wed. 1 pm 228 Cannon1 Bart Stupak Wed. 2 pm 2268 Rayburn

Tentative Hill Visit Meeting Schedule(In Order by Date/Meeting Time)

Dist. Lawmaker Day Time Location2 Pete Hoekstra Wed. 3 pm 2234 Rayburn

(Mtg. w/RJ Laukitis)

3 Vern Ehlers Wed. 4 pm 2182 Rayburn8 Mike Rogers Wed. 4:30 pm 133 Cannon11 Thad McCotter 1632 Longworth13 Carolyn Kilpatrick 2264 Rayburn14 John Conyers 2426 Rayburn

Sen. Carl Levin 269 RussellSen. Debbie Stabenow 133 Hart

Hill Meeting Time Confirmation

• Any changes in meeting times will be posted in the MCUL’s hospitality suite on Monday and Tuesday night.

• Please remember to stop by the hospitality suite to confirm your meeting schedule as well as pick up any additional materials you may need.

• MCUL staff will be on hand at the hospitality suite Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. to go over any last minute changes to Hill visits and conduct another legislative issues briefing for those that are interested.

• If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact MCUL staff on their cell phones.

18

Legislative Update

19

Federal Legislative Issues: Member Business Lending (MBL) Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) Overdraft Protection Interchange Regulatory Restructuring/Consumer Financial

Protection Agency (CFPA)/Systemic Risk

Member Business Lending (MBL)

20

– America’s small businesses are the engine of growth of our nation’s economy.

– The effects of the sub-prime mortgage crisis have spread to all types of lending resulting in a reduction in the availability of business credit.

– As Congress continues to consider ways to help the economy recover and create jobs, credit unions support an economic stimulus option that would create jobs without increasing government spending or the size of government: Raise the statutory cap on credit union member business lending.

– Legislation (H.R. 3380 / S. 2919) to raise the MBL cap to 25% of total assets and exempt loans less than $250,000 from the cap has been introduced in both the House and the Senate.

Member Business Lending (Cont’d)

21

– In conjunction with advocating for increasing the MBL cap to help small businesses, the MCUL has suggested to CUNA that our industry should advocate for the creation of a federal Capital Access Program (CAP) similar to the program we have here in Michigan.

– The program would most likely either be administered by the SBA and/or create a block of grant funds that could be used by States that create their own funds with matching funds from each State.

– The program helps mitigate the risk on higher risk start-up loans by utilizing government funds to help leverage credit union capital.

– This would be an alternative proposal to the President’s plan to give repaid TARP funds to community banks to help small businesses.


22

– In addition, credit unions in Michigan continue to work to help small businesses and entrepreneurs.

– Through a recently announced partnership with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) announced in the Governor’s State of the State address, credit unions pledged more than $43 million for small and start-up business loans.

– Training will be provided to small businesses and entrepreneurs through 12 regional Michigan Small Business & Technology Development Centers of which Michigan credit unions will be partnered for their consideration of financing.


23

Key messages for your Hill visit:• Credit unions urge Congress to enact S. 2919 / H.R.

3380.

• Credit unions have been lending to their business-owning members for a century and in fact, there was no member business lending cap prior to 1998.

• Net charge-off rates for credit union business loans are lower than charge-off rates for business loans made by banks.

• At a time when banks are withdrawing credit from America’s small businesses, credit unions have actually been expanding credit to small businesses.


24

Key messages for your Hill visit:• It makes economic sense to restore credit unions’ full

ability to lend to their business-owning members.

• Credit unions could lend up to $10 billion in the first year if the MBL cap was raised, helping America’s small businesses create 108,000 new jobs.

• This is economic stimulus that does not cost the taxpayers a dime and does not increase the size of government.

• We also encourage Congress to include language increasing the credit union member business lending cap in job creation legislation.

Community Reinvestment Act (CRA)

25

– Credit unions serve their members in all ethnic groups and at all income levels despite the statutory barriers prevent many credit unions from serving underserved communities.

– The obstacle to further credit union service to these groups is not the lack of desire, capacity, or absence of a law that requires measurement of credit union service to the underserved.

– It is statutory restrictions which limit who credit unions can serve and what products they can offer.

Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) (Cont’d)

26

– In these difficult economic times, credit unions are ready and able to do more, but the law, not the credit union, is the greatest barrier.

– Some have suggested that the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) should apply to credit unions.

– Expanding CRA to cover credit unions under H.R. 1479 is not the answer to this problem.

– Co-sponsors from Michigan to H.R. 1479: Reps. Conyers and Cheeks Kilpatrick.


27

Key messages for your Hill visit:• In the year ending Sept. 2009, credit union loans outstanding grew

by nearly 3%; while during that same period of time, banks reduced their loans by nearly $575 billion, a decline of -7.2%.

• Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data shows credit unions make a larger percentage of loans to low and moderate income borrowers than banks and thrifts.

• According to the NCUA, 96% of the members of Federal credit unions have household incomes of less than $100,000 per year.

• CRA was enacted because banks were redlining; credit unions have never engaged in redlining.


28

Key messages for your Hill visit:• CRA was enacted to coerce banks to engage in activity that

they did not want to do.• Credit unions serve their members at all income levels, offer

affordable products and have continued to lend when others have reduced credit availability.

• Credit unions do not need a law like CRA to tell them to serve the underserved: they have done it throughout their history.

• The most effective actions Congress could take to encourage greater credit union service would be to permit all credit unions to serve underserved areas, relax credit union field of membership restrictions, and increase the credit union member business lending cap.

Overdraft Protection

29

– We have concerns regarding the impact pending legislation (S. 1799 / H.R. 3904) would have on members who use and value the overdraft protection services their credit union provides.

– Both bills would limit the number of overdraft fees that could be charged per month and per year and therefore would end overdraft programs to the detriment of many consumers who truly value these programs.

– House co-sponsors to H.R. 3904 from Michigan: Reps. Conyers, Dingell, Cheeks Kilpatrick, and Sander Levin.

– Senate co-sponsor to S. 1799 from Michigan: Sen. Carl Levin.

Overdraft Protection (Cont’d)

30

– The Federal Reserve approved rules late last year that provide users of overdraft protection services with significant new protections.

– This included requiring credit unions and banks to get an opt-in before offering overdraft services on ATM or debit transactions.

– Credit unions are working hard to update their systems to comply with the new rules by the July 2010 deadline.


31

Key messages for your Hill visit:• Credit union members lose if S. 1799 or H.R. 3904

becomes law.

• Credit union members would incur more non-sufficient fund (NSF) fees with none of the benefits of having many transactions honored.

• Merchants would deal with more bounced checks and have more bills that are currently paid under automated bill-paying services rejected.


32

Key messages for your Hill visit:• Inevitably, other adjustments would be made in

checking account services and maintenance fees that would impact a wide range of accountholders.

• We strongly oppose this legislation, and encourage Congress to give the new Fed rules a chance to work.

Interchange

33

– Credit unions issue debit cards and credit cards to their members and the interchange revenue from the use of these cards is vital to credit unions to support the administrative expense of card programs.

– Interchange fees allow business costs, including both operating expenses and the risk of consumer nonpayment, to be shared by the payments participants.

– Government intervention in interchange in H.R. 2382/H.R. 2695/S. 1212 will result in increased cost for consumers, decreased competition, and an unfair disruption of the marketplace.

– Co-sponsors from Michigan: H.R. 2695: Rep. Conyers main bill sponsor.

Interchange (Cont’d)

34

– The Government Accountability Office report from Nov. 2009 found that merchants benefited from increased sales, faster payments, and lower labor costs related to card acceptance.

– Accepting credit cards also allows merchants to make sales on credit at a generally lower cost than operating their own credit program, the report added.

– The GAO report also recognized that having small issuers in the market benefits consumers by forcing competition.


35

Key messages for your Hill visit:• Restricting interchange fees will lower the quality and

increase the cost of these services to consumers.

• Of the approximately 90 million credit union members nationwide, 97% belong to a credit union offering debit cards and 83% belong to a credit union offering credit cards.

• Credit unions oppose statutory and rulemaking proposals that would affect interchange fees as such action would adversely affect consumer options, competition and technological innovation.


36

Key messages for your Hill visit:• Interchange is more appropriately addressed by the market

participants, without any antitrust exemption advantage for the merchants.

• Government interference in this working market stands to harm all participants, including consumers, merchants, and credit unions.

• We urge Members of Congress not to cosponsor and oppose any legislation (H.R. 2382/H.R. 2695/S. 1212) that would affect the interchange received by card-issuing credit unions.

Reg Restructuring/CFPA/Systemic Risk

37

– Congress is currently considering a variety of options for providing consumers with additional protection, including the creation of a new independent agency.

– We agree that consumers of financial products, particularly unregulated financial products, need greater protections.

– If a new consumer agency is created it should have rulemaking authority over consumer protection law.

– However, examination, supervision and enforcement should continue to be the responsibility of the credit union’s prudential regulator.

Reg Restructuring/CFPA/Systemic Risk

38

– A new consumer agency should not stifle competition or innovation—there should be no requirement that credit unions offer “plain vanilla” products before offering a member a product that better meets their needs.

– In addition, with a new consumer agency, it should be required to streamline and modernize consumer protection regulation, minimizing unnecessary regulatory burden.

– Credit unions, individually or as a system, do not pose a systemic risk to the financial system, and did not cause or contribute to the financial crisis.

– Therefore, credit union members should not be asked to bailout huge, complex, failing, for-profit financial companies as part of systemic risk legislation.

Questions?

39

CUNA GAC Michigan Attendee Briefing

Hosted by Michigan Credit Union League

February 17, 2010

40

http://gac.cuna.org/

cuna gac michigan attendee briefing hosted by michigan credit union league february 17, 2010 1

Documents