Trump meets with credit union advocates on lending rules

Credit union advocates met with President Trump on Monday to rally White House support behind a bill to loosen Dodd-Frank Act financial rules.

Trump hosted top credit union CEOs and lobbyists this afternoon, including representatives from the Credit Union National Association (CUNA) and the National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions (NAFCU).

The advocates pressed Trump on a bipartisan Senate bill to loosen Dodd-Frank rules, attendees said.

While the bill from Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) is focused on exempting dozens of banks from stricter federal oversight, it also rolls back restrictions on lending across the financial sector. The Senate is expected to vote on the bill within the next two weeks.

NAFCU President Dan Berger attended the meeting with a group of member CEOs. The group had been seeking a meeting with the president for months.

Berger said the 30-minute meeting was generally focused on “the landscape in terms of financial regulations.”

“He’ll be supportive of any relief that could be provided to us,” Berger said of Trump.

Berger also said Trump briefly mentioned that he’s weeding through potential nominees for Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director. He said a timeline wasn’t discussed.

CUNA President Jim Nussle said before the meeting that he and five member CEOs would tell “President Trump that the country’s credit unions support this bill because it gives them a fighting chance against big banks, unburdens them from regulations written for Wall Street.”

“We’ll encourage him to urge the bill’s passage in the Senate,” Nussle said in a Monday email to CUNA members. “This is a huge opportunity!”

The Senate bill expands the range of which loan applicants can be considered qualified borrowers. It has more than enough Democratic support to clear the Senate, but has been opposed by House conservatives for not doing more to dismantle Dodd-Frank.

Trump has hosted several meetings with financial sector executives and their Washington advocates on rolling back regulation. The president has promised to cut back Dodd-Frank rules on qualifying borrowers to allow more consumers to take out loans.

“We’re looking now at Dodd-Frank because we have to free up so that the banks can loan money to great people, because they were restricted,” Trump said in January.

Trump recounted how “a person came up to me at a recent stop” to explain how his bank rejected him after years of service because of Dodd-Frank.

“Now they’re going to be doing business with that person again,” Trump said.

Updated at 4:27 p.m.