Skip to main content

Editorial: Let credit unions make more business loans


Small businesses have a hard time getting loans they need to operate and expand, limiting their ability to create jobs. Credit unions have capital, but the amount they can loan to businesses is limited by law. There's a coupling waiting to be made here and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) wants to be the matchmaker.

Her Small Business Lending Enhancement bill would raise the cap on the amount of a credit union's total assets that it can lend to businesses. Since the 1990s, that cap has been set by law at 12.25 percent. The bill would raise it to 27.5 percent. In the aftermath of Sandy, when many local businesses need help getting back on their feet, this reform is one Congress should embrace.
> Read Complete Story>Editorial: Let <b>credit unions</b> make more business loans:
 
 

Comments

Post a Comment

Please no profanity or political comments.

Popular posts from this blog

When Vendors Price for Giants

 Grant Sheehan CCUE | CEO Opinion: When Vendors Price for Giants, They Shrink the Future of Small Credit Unions ! There’s a quiet squeeze happening in the credit union industry, and it’s not coming from regulators or competition from big banks. It’s coming from the very vendors that claim to support the ecosystem. For small credit unions, the problem is increasingly simple and factual: the tools required to compete with digital banking platforms, fraud systems, compliance software, analytics, and payments infrastructure are priced for institutions ten or even 100 times their size. The result is a market where access to essential services is determined not by mission or member need, but by asset size. This isn’t just inconvenient. It’s structurally threatening. Vendors often defend their pricing models as a reflection of complexity or scale. Larger credit unions have more users, more transactions, more integrations, so they pay more, and that seems fair on the surface. But t...
Post a Comment
Read Complete Article HERE>»

Growing Your Credit Union Without Expanding Your FOM

For many firefighter and other credit union primarly serving first responders, growth often feels tied to one big decision: expanding the Field of Membership (FOM). But what if you didn’t have to? What if growth could come from within —by deepening relationships, increasing engagement, and capturing more of the financial lives of the members you already serve? The truth is: it can. But it requires a shift in strategy. Rethinking What “Growth” Really Means Most institutions define growth as adding more members. But for single-sponsor credit unions, especially those serving first responders, a more powerful definition is: Growth = more value per member Many members only use one or two products—often a checking account and maybe an auto loan. Meanwhile, larger banks capture mortgages, credit cards, and investments. The opportunity isn’t just new members. It’s: More products per member Higher balances per relationship Greater share of wallet Your Biggest Advantage: The First Responder Life...
Post a Comment
Read Complete Article HERE>»

How's Your Posture?

      April Blog   How's Your Posture?   Scenario Planning Is Dead! Long Live Strategic Posture. by That One Consultant You Hired and Then Ignored   Somewhere in your credi...
Post a Comment
Read Complete Article HERE>»

Fed still holds off on rate increase | 2015-07-30 | CUNA News

  WASHINGTON (7/30/15)--Citing “moderate” economic expansion, the Federal Open Market Committee continues to do “a balancing act,” said CUNA Senior Economist Perc Pineda. The Federal Reserve’s monetary policy-making body completed its meeting Wednesday without edging up the federal funds interest rate. Fed Chair Janet Yellen has said the committee will opt for an interest-rate increase sometime this fall. The July meeting, however, was not the time. “The Federal Reserve continues to do a balancing act: the U.S. economy is not in a recession and definitely not overheating,” Pineda told News Now . “Changes in monetary policy after all are meant to influence an underperforming or an overheating economy.” Household spending growth has been moderate, and housing has shown additional improvement, the committee said. Labor conditions continue to improve with declining unemployment and solid job gains. Inflation is anticipated to remain near its recent low level in the near term,...
Post a Comment
Read Complete Article HERE>»

Syracuse Fire Department Credit Union.

  ================================================= Remember, you're not alone with  NCOFCU.org Join/Upgrade Check out some of NCOFCU's additional features: Annual Conference First Responder Credit Union Academy Financial Literacy Podcasts YouTube Mini's Advocacy  
Post a Comment
Read Complete Article HERE>»

IRS Reporting Proposal Scaled Back, but Still 'Flawed'

On Tuesday, Senate Democrats distributed an update to the controversial IRS reporting requirements that the credit union industry has been very vocally opposed to since it was unveiled in late June. According to the updated proposal rolled out Tuesday, it would require financial institutions to report inflows and outflows of personal and business accounts, as well as transfers between accounts of the same owner, if it is more than $10,000 per year. The proposal floating around for the past four months had the threshold at $600 per year. The requirements do not apply to payroll deposits for wages or to those receiving Social Security benefits. In response to the updated IRS reporting proposal, NAFCU President/CEO Dan Berger said, “It has become abundantly clear that Americans oppose the IRS obtaining additional information on their financial accounts. The updated plan is nothing more than window dressing in an attempt to shore up support for a flawed proposal. Instead of creating financ...
Post a Comment
Read Complete Article HERE>»

Please Support the Tunnels 2 Towers Foundation

The mission of the Stephen Siller Tunnel to  Towers   Foundation is to honor the sacrifice of firefighter Stephen Siller, who laid down his life to save others on September 11, 2001. We also honor our military and first responders who continue to make the supreme sacrifice of life and limb for our country. In response to COVID-19 , Tunnels to Towers has established the COVID-19 Heroes Fund , pledging to support frontline health care workers by providing meals, personal protective equipment (PPE) and, should tragedy strike, financial relief through temporary mortgage payments on homes of health care workers who lose their lives and leave behind young children. Through the  Fallen First Responder Home Program , Tunnel to Towers aims to pay off the mortgages of fallen law enforcement officers and firefighters killed in the line of duty that leave behind young children.  The Foundation’s goal is to ensure stability and security to these families facing sudden, tra...
Post a Comment
Read Complete Article HERE>»

Sunday Reading - Landmine Rat Honored

  Landmine Rat Honored   Cambodia unveiled the world’s first statue honoring a landmine-detecting rat (w/photo) Friday. Magawa the rat lived to 8 years old and identified more than 100 landmines and other explosives from 2016 to 2021.  There are more than 100 African pouched rats deployed in landmine detection operations across the world. To identify mines, the rats are trained to sniff out explosive compounds like trinitrotoluene, or TNT. (The rats are not heavy enough to trigger detonation.) In Cambodia, up to 6 million landmines remain undiscovered, most planted during three decades of conflict, from the Vietnam War era through Cambodia's civil war . Since 1979, roughly 20,000 people have been killed in Cambodia, and roughly 40,000 wounded as a result of the mines. Magawa cleared more than ...
Post a Comment
Read Complete Article HERE>»

Pickup Truck Sales Increase

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga.—Used vehicle values saw a slight increase in September, thanks to a surge in the values of full-sized pickup trucks, Black Book reports. The company’s Used Vehicle Retention Index hit an all-time high in September (130.8), a +1.8-point change from August (129.0). The uptick in values continues what many analysts have called surprising strength in the used market this year. However, big declines are expected before year’s end. “Overall, the Index increased slightly in September,” said Alex Yurchenko, senior vice president, data science at Black Book. “The increase was driven mostly by the strength of the full-size pickup segment in the first part of September as most of the other segments saw a drop in the Index. We expect the continuation of weakening of most of the segments including full-size pickups in the next several months as the economy remains weak and there is an expected glut of used supply.” The Black Book Used Vehicle Retention Index is calc...
Post a Comment
Read Complete Article HERE>»

The FedNow Service will launch in 2023 "Are you ready?"

The FedNow Service is a new instant payment service that the Federal Reserve Banks are developing to enable financial institutions of every size, and in every community across the U.S., to provide safe and efficient instant payment services in real-time, around the clock, every day of the year. Through financial institutions participating in the FedNow Service, businesses and individuals will be able to send and receive instant payments conveniently, and recipients will have full access to funds immediately, giving them greater flexibility to manage their money and make time-sensitive payments. Consistent with the Federal Reserve’s historical role of providing payment services alongside private-sector providers, the FedNow Service will provide choice in the market for clearing and settling instant payments as well as promote resiliency through redundancy. Financial institutions and their service providers will be able to use the service as a springboard to provide innovative instant p...
Post a Comment
Read Complete Article HERE>»