The House Financial Services Committee recently convened top banking regulators to examine supervisory and regulatory developments, rulemakings, and the activities of prudential regulators.

For credit unions, the hearing underscored both risk and opportunity: rising political interference threatens the stability of the system, yet renewed attention to tailored regulation, Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), and credit-union liquidity tools signals potential paths forward for community-focused finance.

Key Legislator Questions

Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Acting Chairman Travis Hill, Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould, and National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) Chair Kyle Hauptman testified as witnesses.

One of the key areas of questioning as it relates to credit unions was that of Rep. William Timmons (R-SC). He asked Hauptman about the implementation of the GENIUS Act. Congress has set a date for January 18, 2027, for this legislation to be implemented. Hauptman said the first area of priority by the NCUA is how to apply to be an issuer — for the credit union industry.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) raised questions about the future of the CDFI Fund, and Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman reiterated strong support for CDFIs and highlighted ongoing technical assistance efforts.

Rep. Juan Vargas (D-CA) highlighted climate-related financial risk given California’s wildfires.

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) highlighted a long-standing issue affecting credit unions: allowing volunteer board members to be reimbursed for childcare expenses incurred while attending board meetings. He urged the NCUA to act quickly.

Rep. Young Kim (R-CA) highlighted concerns about limited liquidity options for smaller institutions and asked NCUA leadership to identify barriers preventing many from accessing the Central Liquidity Facility. Finally, she noted that her district includes community banks, credit unions and emerging digital banks, and she stressed the importance of consistent supervisory and capital standards across institutions of similar size.

Legislative Topics and Discussion

Areas of key legislation discussed included the following (please note that some proposed legislation discussed does not have a designated H.R. number as they are existing drafts):

• H.R. 1799, the Financial Reporting Threshold Modernization Act (Loudermilk): update the Domestic Currency Transaction Report (CTR) threshold from $10,000 to $30,000.
• H.R. 4936, the Taskforce for Recognizing and Averting Payment Scams (TRAPS) Act: This bill directs the Secretary of Treasury to establish a task force composed of members from the Office of Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Federal Reserve Board (FRB), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), U.S. Justice Department, as well as representatives from financial institutions and other relevant stakeholders.
• H.R. ____, the Merger Process Review Act: This discussion draft requires the Inspector General of each federal prudential regulator to carry out a review every three years of the regulator’s handling of bank merger applications and submit a report to Congress.
• H.R. ____, the Merger Agreement Approvals Clarity and Predictability Act: This discussion draft requires the comptroller general of the United States to study the use of commitments and conditions by Federal prudential regulators in connection with bank merger applications.
• H.R. ____, the New Bank Application Numbers Knowledge (New BANK) Act: This discussion draft requires annual reports on applications for Federal depository institution charters, bank holding companies, Federal deposit insurance, and State depository institution charters.
• H.R. ____, the Rural Depositories Revitalization Study Act: This discussion draft requires the FRB, FDIC, and OCC to study ways to improve the growth, capital adequacy, and profitability of rural depository institutions, and identify laws and regulations that limit de novo banking activity.
• H.R. ____, the Regulatory Efficiency, Verification, Itemization, and Enhanced Workflow (REVIEW) Act: This discussion draft amends the Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act of 1996 to build on the existing regulatory review process by increasing the frequency from every 10 years to every five years and requiring the FRB, FDIC, OCC, and NCUA to conduct an internal review of the cumulative impact of their regulations.
• H.R. ____, the American Financial Institution Regulatory Sovereignty and Transparency (American FIRST) Act (Loudermilk): This discussion draft requires the FRB, OCC, FDIC, and NCUA to include in their respective annual reports information on their respective interactions with global financial regulatory or supervisory forums like the Basel Committee for the purpose of policy standardization, public transparency, and congressional oversight.
• H.R. ____, the Tailoring and Indexing Enhanced Regulations (TIER) Act (Barr): This discussion draft indexes various asset-based thresholds for bank regulations to nominal GDP (Gross Domestic Product) for banks categorized as Category II, III, and IV.