BRIEFLY: NCUA, CDFI Fund set webinar on small-dollar loan program; Regulators to testify; Trades oppose debt collection legislation

(May 14, 2021) The small-dollar loan program of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) Fund related to credit unions is the subject of a webinar planned for May 27 by the CDFI and NCUA. The one-hour event will describe the program and discuss eligibility of permissible uses of funds through the program, NCUA said in a release. It added that credit unions that are not certified as CDFIs may still be eligible for the program through partnerships with CDFIs or any federally insured depository institution whose primary mission is serving targeted investment areas … Federal financial institution regulators – including NCUA (likely Board Chairman Todd Harper) — are due to testify next Wednesday (May 19) before the House Financial Services Committee in an oversight hearing; the session gets underway at 10 a.m. (and will be streamed, live, via the Internet) … Credit union and banking trade associations this week wrote in opposition to legislation aimed at reversing a Supreme Court decision clarifying that a business engaged in non-judicial foreclosure proceedings is not a debt collector. The Non-Judicial Foreclosure Debt Collection Clarification Act (H.R. 2547), a bill that would reverse the 2019 decision in Obduskey v. McCarthy and Holthus LLP, which clarified that entities enforcing a security interest, without also seeking repayment or deficiency judgement, generally do not qualify as debt collectors under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). The groups contend that the bill would “disrupt the choices states have made in structuring their foreclosure regimes, imposing unnecessary costs and delay to the enforcement of real property interests and subsequently increasing the cost of credit.”

LINKS:
NCUA, CDFI Fund to Cohost Webinar on Small-Dollar Loan Program