In an age where so much communication now occurs via email or an even faster text message, a hand-delivered letter from an industry association quickly generated a phone call from the new director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

That hand-delivered letter from the National Association of Federally Insured Credit Unions on Tuesday prompted new CFPB director Kathy Kraninger to call NAFCU president and chief executive officer Dan Berger early Wednesday morning. It’s an exchange that marked a new relationship between the bureau and NAFCU staff, according to the association’s recount of the events.

During the call NAFCU said Berger congratulated Kraninger on her new role and shared credit unions' top priorities that specifically concern the bureau. 

“We appreciate bureau director Kathy Kraninger’s interest in issues critical to the credit union industry, and we thank her for reaching out to NAFCU,” Berger said. “We look forward to working with director Kraninger to ensure a healthy regulatory environment in which credit unions can grow, thrive and successfully serve their membership.”

Berger recounted that letter to the bureau outlined what credit unions would like to see from the bureau. In this four-page document, Berger listed several priority areas for NAFCU, including:

• The bureau to use its exemption authority to excuse credit unions from certain rulemakings

• “Clear, transparent guidance” from the bureau on its expectations for credit unions under the unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts and practices (UDAAP) law

• Congress and regulators to address “supervisory gaps that may result in poor oversight of non-bank financial companies,” such as fintech companies

• An exemption from the bureau’s payday lending rule for new iterations of the NCUA’s payday alternative lending (PAL) program

• A shift at the bureau from a single director to a bipartisan commission, as well as making the bureau subject to the congressional appropriations process

• An exemption for all credit unions, regardless of asset size, from the bureau’s supervisory and enforcement authority

• Reforms to the bureau’s consumer complaint database and a ceasing of publication of unverifiable consumer complaint data