WASHINGTON — The government will have more money to lend tocredit unions as a result of an increase in the cap on the CentralLiquidity Facility approved by Congress over the weekend.

The continuing resolution to fund the government contains aprovision that eliminated the artificial cap on the CentralLiquidity Facility's lending capabilities. Currently, it is cappedat $1.5 billion and the change would allow the facility to lendmoney to credit unions based on the formula established in theFederal Credit Union Act, which is estimated to be $41.5billion.

NCUA and the credit union trade groups pushed hard for includingthe provision.

“I am extremely pleased that Congress has responded favorably toour request that NCUA be given authority to lend to its statutorilyset Central Liquidity Facility loan level, which is now $41billion,” NCUA Chairman Michael E. Fryzel said. “The careful casethat we built in asking for the authority was based on the conceptthat I wanted to be proactive and preventative, rather thanreactive during a crisis, and I commend Congress for providing NCUAan additional tool with which to address liquidity needs that maydevelop.”

CUNA and NAFCU both praised the congressional action and said itwill help both the government and credit unions during difficulttimes, such as the current economic slowdown.