e-Weekly

April 13, 2011

House MBL cap lift bill introduced
Legislation that would lift the credit union member business lending (MBL) cap to 27.5% of total assets was introduced in the House on April 7. The bill is known as the Small Business Lending Enhancement Act. The bill is similar to Senate legislation offered by Senators Mark Udall (D-CO) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) last month.

Representatives Ed Royce (R-CA), Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), Russ Carnahan (D-MO), Hank Johnson (D-GA) and Gary Peters (D-MI) co-sponsored the bill. Royce, in a release, said that the MBL cap lift legislation "takes an important step in shifting our current economic path and putting Americans back to work."

Udall spoke in support of his bill on the Senate floor recently, calling on his fellow Senators to help him "get government out of the way" and allow credit unions to increase their lending to small businesses. The Senate bill has 18 co-sponsors, and Senate Banking Chairman Tim Johnson (D-SD) has said he is interested in examining the MBL legislation in his committee.

State and federal credit unions may be eligible for an IRS refund
Certain eligible state and federal credit unions may be entitled to file for a tax credit with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Included in the Affordable Health Care Act enacted in March 2010, the small business health care tax credit is designed to encourage small businesses and small tax-exempt organizations (including credit unions) to offer health insurance coverage to their employees or maintain coverage they already have.

The credit is available to small credit unions that pay at least half of the premiums for single health insurance coverage for their employees. The credit union must have no more than 25 full-time equivalent employees who earn, on average, less than $50,000 per year. The credit can be as high as 25% of premiums paid by the credit union.

The credit is claimed on the revised form 990-T. The due date for filing the 2010 Form 990-T is May 15, 2011. The credit can be claimed even if the credit union has no unrelated business income.

If your credit union would like the Audit Department of New England Credit Union Services, LLC to assist with this filing, please contact Kathy Enderlin at kenderlin@cucenter.org or at 1-800-842-1242.

MemberClose provides turnkey solution to evaluation and appraisal guidelines
Credit unions have now been operating under the new evaluation and appraisal guidelines from the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) for a little more than a week. A number of credit unions addressed the new requirements by relying on the point & click solutions provided by MemberClose. “We have built multiple product options into our website in order to give each credit union the ability to tailor a solution that works best for them,” said Bob Delaney, chief operating officer of Members Insurance Agency. “The option that a credit union will select will be driven by the characteristics of the particular loan,” added Delaney.

“In many cases, a credit union that was using a Tax Assessments or Automated Valuation Model (AVM) is continuing that practice. The only difference is that they are now supplementing that by ordering a Property Condition Report (PCR). Credit unions are also finding that, in cases where they had previously relied on a drive-by appraisal, that the Collateral Point Exterior (CPE) provided more comprehensive data at a lower price point,” concluded Delaney.

MemberClose has been providing a bundled settlement solution for credit unions since 2004. There are now over 160 credit unions in 14 states on the program. More information is available at www.memberclose.com or by calling Lisa Costello at 1-888-746-2476.

The Great New England Credit Union Show is next week -- April 21!
The Great New England Credit Union Show is going to be held on Thursday, April 21 at the Holiday Inn in Boxborough, MA. Join your credit union peers for a full day of education and networking. Over 75 companies that serve credit unions will be on hand to demonstrate how they can help you better serve your members.

Do not miss The Great New England Credit Union Show. Click here to register.