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Board Action Bulletin

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Dec. 14, 2017) – The National Credit Union Administration Board held its tenth open meeting of 2017 at the agency’s headquarters here today and unanimously approved two items:

• A final rule implementing changes in the agency’s central office organization.
• A final rule amending the agency’s definition of “in danger of insolvency” to give the agency more flexibility to act when emergency mergers are necessary.

Reorganization Final Rule Makes Central Office Changes

The NCUA’s central office restructuring will be completed with the Board’s approval of a rule (Parts 701, 705, 708, and 790) implementing features of the agency’s reorganization plan announced earlier this year.

The rule includes:

• Closure of the Office of Small Credit Union Initiatives;
• Creation of the Office of Credit Union Resources and Expansion, which will take over various responsibilities of the former Office of Small Credit Union Initiatives as well as some functions of the Office of Consumer Financial Protection and Access and the Office of Minority and Women Inclusion; and
• Changing the name of the Office of Consumer Financial Protection and Access to the Office of Consumer Financial Protection.

Other planned changes to the agency’s central office reorganization, such as changes to the Office of Examination and Insurance, do not require a regulatory change. The reorganization plan includes closure of two agency regional offices, which is scheduled to occur in January 2019. Those closures will be subject to a separate rule to come before the Board in 2018.

The final rule, available online here (opens new window), becomes effective Jan. 6, 2018, to coincide with the implementation of the agency’s reorganization plan.

Final Rule Gives Agency Greater Flexibility in Emergency Mergers

Board members approved a final rule (Part 701) that would provide the NCUA with additional flexibility in situations warranting emergency mergers.

The rule amends the definition of “in danger of insolvency” in the agency’s Chartering and Field of Membership Manual. The current definition requires the NCUA to project a credit union to fall into at least one of three net worth categories over a period of time in order to be found in danger of insolvency. The rule lengthens the time period for two of the three current categories by six months and adds a fourth category to include credit unions that have been granted or received Section 208 assistance within the 15 months before an “in danger of insolvency” determination has been made.

The rule does not affect the other statutory criteria for authorizing an emergency merger.

The final rule, available online here (opens new window), becomes effective 30 days after publication in the Federal Register.

The NCUA tweets all open Board meetings live. Follow @TheNCUA (opens new window) on Twitter, and access Board Action Memorandums and NCUA rule changes at www.ncua.gov. The NCUA also live streams, archives and posts videos of open Board meetings online.