ALEXANDRIA, Va. (July 25, 2017) – The National Credit Union Administration Board has re-scheduled its September open and closed meetings to Thursday, Sept. 28, beginning at 10 a.m. Eastern.
The Board meetings had been scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 21.
Meeting agendas are made available on NCUA’s Board Meeting Calendar and Actions webpage. The September open Board meeting, like all NCUA open board meetings, will be available on livestream from the agency’s website.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (July 26, 2017) — The National Credit Union Administration’s new Learning Management Service is up and running, and the agency is hosting a webinar to help credit unions learn about the service’s training resources on regulatory, operational and strategic subjects.
The webinar, “Small Credit Union Learning Management Service,” will be held on Wednesday, Aug. 16, beginning at 2 p.m. Eastern. There is no charge.
Dominic Carullo and Vanessa Lowe, economic development specialists with the NCUA’s Office of Small Credit Union Initiatives, will discuss the resources the Learning Management Service offers to federally insured credit unions. JeanMarie Komyathy, deputy director of the Office of Small Credit Union Initiatives, will lead a demonstration of the system and its features.
Developed by the Office of Small Credit Union Initiatives and launched in May, the NCUA’s Learning Management Service offers access to training courses beneficial to credit union staff and volunteers.
Registration for this 60-minute webinar is required and is now open here (opens new window). Participants will use this same link to log into the webinar. Registrants should allow pop-ups from this website.
Users should watch this brief tutorial video (opens new window) to learn more about creating an account and the service’s training categories.
Registered users can submit questions in advance at [email protected]. The email’s subject line should read, “OSCUI LMS.” Participants with technical questions about accessing the webinar may email [email protected]. This webinar will be closed captioned and then archived online here approximately three weeks following the live event.
The NCUA’s Office of Small Credit Union Initiatives fosters credit union development and the effective delivery of financial services for small credit unions, new credit unions, minority depository institutions and credit unions with a low-income designation.
NCUA is the independent federal agency created by the U.S. Congress to regulate, charter and supervise federal credit unions. With the backing of the full faith and credit of the United States, NCUA operates and manages the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund, insuring the deposits of account holders in all federal credit unions and the overwhelming majority of state-chartered credit unions. At MyCreditUnion.gov (opens new window), NCUA also educates the public on consumer protection and financial literacy issues.
“Protecting credit unions and the consumers who own them through effective regulation”
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Aug. 3, 2017) – The National Credit Union Administration is hosting its third and final round for credit unions to qualify to use the streamlined application for certification as community development financial institutions.
In the streamlined application process, developed by the NCUA and the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, low-income credit unions submit data on loan originations and their target markets to the NCUA’s Office of Small Credit Union Initiatives. The agency will then analyze each credit union’s products and services and other indicators to determine its likelihood for certification. If the credit union is qualified to use the streamlined process, the NCUA will provide an application form and the data necessary to complete it. The credit union then completes the application and sends it to the CDFI Fund for final determination of certification.
Credit unions can find more information on the NCUA-CDFI Certification Initiative webpage. Eighteen federally insured, low-income credit unions already have obtained certification through the streamlined process.
Low-income credit unions that do not qualify for the streamlined program may still obtain a CDFI certification through the CDFI Fund’s standard application available here (opens new window).
The NCUA’s Office of Small Credit Union Initiatives fosters credit union development and the effective delivery of financial services for small credit unions, new credit unions, minority depository institutions, and credit unions with a low-income designation.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Aug. 16, 2017) – The National Credit Union Administration is inviting credit union stakeholders to read and comment on a package of regulatory reforms recommended by an internal agency task force.
The task force has recommended changes that would be adopted in the coming four years to clarify, improve, revise, or eliminate regulations. The NCUA Board approved posting the proposal in the Federal Register for a 90-day comment period, and a copy of that notice is available on the agency’s website here
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“The need for a forward-looking regulatory structure that offers meaningful relief without undermining safety and soundness is quite clear,” NCUA Board Chairman J. Mark McWatters said, “and these recommendations serve as a roadmap for a thoughtful process to achieve that goal. This undertaking represents a more significant and comprehensive regulatory relief effort than the agency has pursued in the past. We initiated this effort in the spirit of the administration’s executive order requiring regulatory review, even though the NCUA is not covered by the order.”
“We have made significant progress in the area of regulatory relief in the years following the financial crisis, and this proposal takes that effort to another level,” Board Member Rick Metsger said. “A great deal of work went into developing these recommendations. The task force scoured all the agency’s regulations, looking for ways to make improvements. I hope credit union stakeholders will take time to review this plan carefully and offer comments.”
The agency’s regulatory reform task force was created earlier this year after the NCUA, an independent federal financial institutions regulator, voluntarily chose to comply with the spirit of Executive Order 13777, which requires federal agencies to conduct regulatory reviews.
The task force’s recommendations assess regulatory changes in terms of the time and resources necessary to implement them and the potential benefit to credit unions. All regulatory changes will require an affirmative vote by the NCUA’s Board.
Regulatory review is already part of the NCUA’s culture. Since 1987, the agency has conducted a three-year rolling review of all its rules. Though not required by law, the NCUA also has participated in the Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act regulatory review process. If the internal task force’s recommendations are adopted by the Board, they would, in effect, supersede those previous efforts.
The agency already has taken steps towards reform in several areas covered in the proposal, including field-of-membership (opens new window), alternative capital (opens new window), asset securitization (opens new window), and appeals to the NCUA’s supervisory review committee (opens new window).
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Aug. 16, 2017) — The National Credit Union Administration has now posted the Aug. 9 webinar covering its proposed plan to close the Temporary Corporate Credit Union Stabilization Fund.
The NCUA Board at its July 20 open meeting unanimously approved issuing the proposed plan for public comment. The plan includes raising the Share Insurance Fund normal operating level from the current 1.30 percent to 1.39 percent.
Details of the NCUA’s proposed plan to close the Stabilization Fund are available online here. Questions and answers on the proposed change to the normal operating level are available online here (opens new window).
Comments on the proposed plan must be received by Sept. 5. Comments may be submitted by email to [email protected]. The Federal Register notice (opens new window) of the proposed closure plan also includes instructions for submitting comments by fax, mail, courier, or hand delivery.
The proposed plan is expected to result in a Share Insurance Fund distribution of between $600 million and $800 million to credit unions in 2018. At the July open meeting, the Board also approved a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (opens new window) amending its rule governing insurance fund equity distributions, including those expected to result from closing the Stabilization Fund. Comments on that proposed rule also are due Sept. 5, and instructions for submitting comments are available on the agency’s Proposed Regulations webpage.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Aug. 17, 2017) – The video recording of the July 20, 2017, open meeting of the National Credit Union Administration Board is now available on the agency’s website.
Archived videos of past Board meetings may be viewed here, and each video remains on the site for one year.
At the July open meeting, the Board unanimously approved three items:
The Board also received briefings from the Chief Financial Officer on the revised 2017 agency budget estimates and the performance of the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund.
NCUA posts these videos as part of the agency’s ongoing efforts to provide transparency and to allow those unable to attend Board meetings the opportunity to become better informed. An interval between the meeting and posting is necessary for the videos to comply with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act for the hearing and visually impaired.
The Board Actions page of NCUA’s website has more information, including Board agendas, which are posted at least one week in advance of each open meeting; copies of Board Action Bulletins, which summarize the meetings; copies of Board memorandums and other documents.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Aug. 25, 2017) – Credit unions along the Gulf Coast in Texas should take precautions as Hurricane Harvey approaches, the National Credit Union Administration said today.
Hurricane Harvey is currently located in the Gulf of Mexico, about 120 miles southeast of Corpus Christi, Texas, and is travelling north-northwest at about 10 miles per hour. Harvey is currently a Category 2 hurricane, with winds of 100 miles per hour, and is projected to become a Category 3 storm, with winds perhaps as high as 125 miles per hour, by the time it makes landfall Friday night or early Saturday morning. The slow-moving storm could mean hurricane-force winds and heavy rains might affect communities for several days, with wide-spread power outages likely. Portions of the Texas Gulf Coast could receive up to 30 inches of rain.
The NCUA is watching the storm closely, and the agency will monitor the conditions of credit unions in Harvey’s path. The agency will be ready to assist credit unions with maintaining or restoring operations, if necessary. The agency maintains a hurricane and disaster information page on its website with more material on preparedness and staying safe.
Credit union members with questions may contact the NCUA’s Consumer Assistance Center at 800-755-1030 Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Eastern. The NCUA’s Office of Small Credit Union Initiatives can provide urgent needs grants (opens new window) of up to $7,500 to low-income credit unions that experience sudden costs to restore operations interrupted by the storm.
The National Hurricane Center has an an information page on Hurricane Harvey (opens new window), and the Federal Department of Homeland Security has an information page on being prepared for hurricanes (opens new window).
Credit union member deposits remain protected by the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund. Administered by the NCUA, the Share Insurance Fund insures individual accounts up to $250,000, and a member’s interest in all joint accounts combined is insured up to $250,000. The Share Insurance Fund separately protects IRA and KEOGH retirement accounts up to $250,000. The Share Insurance Fund has the backing of the full faith and credit of the United States. Members with questions about their insurance coverage can find information online at the Share Insurance Coverage (opens new window) page of the NCUA’s MyCreditUnion.gov (opens new window) website.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Aug. 28, 2017) – The National Credit Union Administration is providing help to credit unions and their members in parts of Texas and Louisiana struck by Hurricane Harvey.
“We have been monitoring the situation constantly since last week, and NCUA staff are coordinating with other agencies and working continually to provide assistance to credit unions and their members,” NCUA Board Chairman J. Mark McWatters said. “This has been a devastating storm affecting millions of people, and the effects will be felt for months or even years. The NCUA will be on the job as long as necessary.”
“All of us were stunned by the power of this storm and moved by the suffering inflicted on the people in its path,” NCUA Board Member Rick Metsger said. “As the area works to recover, our agency will work to help credit unions and their members get back on their feet.”
There are approximately 150 federally insured credit unions in the areas of Texas affected by Hurricane Harvey and approximately 28 credit unions in the areas of Louisiana affected by the storm. President Donald J. Trump on Friday issued a disaster declaration for parts of Texas hit by the storm and a second declaration earlier today for parts of Louisiana where tornados and flooding could occur. Those declarations make federal assistance available. Under the NCUA’s disaster assistance policy for those areas, the agency will, where necessary:
During natural disasters, the NCUA works with individual state league organizations and state regulators to ensure all federally insured credit unions know about the agency’s available assistance. NCUA examiners will remain in close contact with the affected local credit unions to offer advice and assistance.
When a disaster strikes, NCUA personnel operate under three priorities:
Federal credit unions may provide assistance to other credit unions and non-members in the affected areas under certain conditions:
The NCUA’s Office of Small Credit Union Initiatives can provide urgent needs grants (opens new window) of up to $7,500 to low-income credit unions that experience sudden costs to restore operations interrupted by the storm.
Credit union members with questions about their Share Insurance coverage may contact the NCUA’s Consumer Assistance Center at 800.755.1030 Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Eastern.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Aug. 29, 2017) – As part of its efforts to improve efficiency and reduce costs where possible, the National Credit Union Administration announced it is ending the print edition of its quarterly newsletter, beginning with the third quarter issue released today.
As an online-only publication, credit unions can access The NCUA Report’s articles in HTML format or view the entire issue as an interactive PDF file (opens new window).
Credit unions will no longer receive printed copies by mail. Readers can subscribe to the online version of The NCUA Report here (opens new window).
The current issue of The NCUA Report features columns from NCUA Board Chairman J. Mark McWatters and Board Member Rick Metsger, as well as articles from several NCUA offices on the agency’s initiatives and information on regulatory, supervisory and compliance issues at federally insured credit unions.
Articles in the third quarter 2017 issue include:
The NCUA Report newsletter highlights recent Board activity and important information that credit union managers, staff and volunteers need to know. The fourth quarter issue of the newsletter will be available online in November. Previous issues are available on NCUA’s public website here.
