Page 14 - 2015 Contact Magazine: 3rd Quarter

What’s your take on the new payday lending rule from the CFPB and its impact on credit
unions t t o er p d lo n ltern ti e products
We’re pleased that CFPB has included a conditional exemption from some of the require-

ments in the proposed rule for payday alternative loan products that we authorize.
It’s incumbent upon us as regulators not just to say what is wrong as we do with the
predatory lenders out there, but also to help define what is a safe and accessible product

that these individuals can use to meet those needs—and that’s really at the heart of the
credit union difference. I’d like to see the PAL program expand so that we can meet
the need and so these consumers aren’t trapped by predators that want to put

them into a cycle of debt.
What do you foresee as the likelihood of a large update to the Federal Credit Union
Act in order to deal with longstanding issues like supplemental capital, raising the
member business lending c p nd field o members ip moderni tion
The Federal Credit Union Act gives the NCUA a fair amount of flexibility in its grant
of authority, and that’s important in that it gives the agency the ability to respond
to changes within the industry. Sure, there are some things that can only be
changed in Congress, but at the regulatory level, we can address—and we
are addressing—a great percentage of the concerns that credit unions have.
And we are nimble enough to do this very quickly and not be measured
in decades or eons.

A full transcript of Rick Metsger’s interview is available at mcul.org.

14 T hird Q uarter 2016 I Contact