• last year
During a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Thursday, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) questioned a credit union CEO about her lending and business practices.

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Transcript
00:00 Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
00:04 So much has been said, I'd love to debate, but I only have five minutes.
00:08 So unfortunate.
00:09 But let me just ask you a question, Ms. Mandry.
00:16 Reading your story about who you are and the success that you've had being the CEO of a
00:21 credit union, you have overcome real obstacles.
00:26 I wish we had more time for you to tell your story, because honestly, the question that
00:31 I want to ask deserves the context of not just your position today, but the journey
00:35 that you've taken to get to your position today.
00:38 I think about my life story and the challenges I've had to overcome from a single-parent
00:41 household mired in poverty, and what that really means for the context in which I'm
00:47 asking the questions.
00:48 I think about some of my staffers, Catherine Fuchs, whose last day in the committee is
00:52 today.
00:53 I think about her growing up on a farm, a farm that focuses on vegetables, the cucumbers
00:58 and corn, and the impact that that has on her psyche and the ability to work hard.
01:04 I think about the three stories that we have combined together, and I ask myself if the
01:08 CFPB is going to save the average person about $200 a year, or the cost of the Biden economy
01:17 on a family of four, $15,000 a year, when you are in your credit union in Indiana and
01:25 your members come in and they're complaining about the cost of gas, cost of food, the cost
01:31 of energy.
01:32 Do you hear them talking more about the challenges of $15,000, the weight of Bidenomics, or do
01:39 you hear them talking a little bit more about the late fee?
01:44 That's a great question.
01:47 Every day we have members come into our credit union and express just how hard it is to make
01:53 ends meet.
01:55 One of the things about our credit union is that we do not take a fast food approach to
02:01 lending.
02:02 My lenders will spend anywhere from an hour to two hours with a member because we want
02:07 to listen and understand the struggles that they're facing.
02:12 We will do what we can to help them to overcome those challenges, and we do it with empathy.
02:23 My lenders have training on how to envision themselves walking in our members' shoes.
02:29 We help them to look at their financial situation and create budgets.
02:35 When it's deemed necessary, we provide them with a loan if that is in their best interest.
02:43 We do a lot of debt consolidation loans to try to help put them in a better financial
02:49 position.
02:52 Because we're regulated, because we are limited and capped at an 18 percent interest rate,
02:58 quite often my members can borrow money from me at a much more affordable rate.
03:04 When we consolidate all of their debt and give them one payment to make, it makes it
03:08 easier for them to manage their finances.
03:12 It makes them less prone to late fees.
03:15 The other thing that we do is when a member comes in and says, "I'm having a hardship,"
03:22 we do a lot of extensions on loans where we will forgive payments for up to 90 days.
03:29 If they are having problems paying their current loans, we will do modifications.
03:36 We will look at what they can reasonably afford to pay and rewrite that loan at that loan
03:43 payment so that our members can be successful.
03:47 As you said, I have lived that life.
03:50 I wish when I was struggling that there was a bank or a financial institution that was
03:57 willing to help me better manage my money so that I could ensure that my children always
04:04 had food on their tables.
04:06 That was not always the case.
04:08 I am committed to making sure the people in the communities that I serve have a wonderful
04:15 opportunity and know that we are there to walk alongside them and help them through
04:21 whatever financial challenge they face.
04:23 [Mr. Cummings] Thank you.
04:24 I can't imagine more people like you in the financial services industry without any question.
04:28 You have introduced financial laws 101, fast food approach.
04:33 You don't take the fast food approach.
04:34 I love that concept.
04:36 Because I'm only the ranking member and not the chairman, he's going to cut me off in
04:39 a few minutes because I'm going to run out of time.
04:41 I want to talk for just a second about something I call the law of the tradeoffs.
04:47 There are no changes to fee structures that doesn't require a tradeoff.
04:53 If your fees go away, either your interest rates go up, the cost of the product goes
04:58 up, or the product itself goes away.
05:01 Yei-Nei?
05:02 [Ms. Norton] I agree with that.
05:06 We have looked at what we would do if the overdraft protection law was passed into regulation.
05:14 It would mean that we would have to cut our services.
05:18 It could mean that we would have to lay off staff.
05:22 I currently employ 36 people in my community.
05:27 We would have to move away from this two-hour approach and say, "How can we accomplish things
05:34 in a shorter period of time?"
05:36 [Mr. Cummings] Thank you very much.
05:37 I know I'm out of time, Mr. Chairman.
05:39 I'll just close with this.
05:41 I know the chairman is trying to do his best to be as lenient with me as possible.
05:45 [Mr. Barnes] It's a difficult challenge.
05:46 [Mr. Cummings] It is indeed.
05:48 I appreciate his transparency there.
05:50 Let me just suggest this, that even though the fees that we're talking about do not apply
05:54 to your credit union, you said without any question that the trickle-down effect will
05:59 have impact on your credit union.
06:01 Thank you very much.
06:02 Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for your leniency this morning.
06:03 [Mr. Barnes] Thank you, Senator Scott.
06:04 Don't try it again next week.
06:05 [Mr. Cummings] I tried not to do it last week.
06:08 [Mr. Barnes] Your test or Montana's recognized.
06:09 [Chairman Hicks] That's what happens when you run for president.
06:12 It gets a little longer on the questions and answers, right?
06:15 [Mr. Cummings] I told Brown that, too.
06:16 He's gotten really long-winded since he ran for president.
06:18 Yes, sir, I agree with you.
06:19 I did not run for president, Mr. Scott.
06:21 [Chairman Hicks] All right.
06:23 Anything I can do to start some fights?
06:26 That's good.

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