ALEXANDRIA, Va.–Later this week the NCUA board will be meeting, and its much-discussed and debated budget for next year will be on the agenda Thursday.
Both CUNA and NAFCU have already sent letters to the agency expressing concerns that the “budget is increasing at a time when the credit union system is very healthy,” as CUNA’s Ryan Donovan noted. “We don’t believe the agency needs to increase its budget; the financial crisis is over. In our letter we actually proposed that the budget should be proposing reduction and decreasing credit unions financial obligations to the agency.”
Nevertheless, said Donovan, CUNA does not expect NCUA will reduce its budget, so it is also pushing for greater efficiencies, such as 18-month exams and better coordination with state regulators. CUToday.info has additional reporting on the NCUA budget here.
Also on the NCUA board agenda: proposed changes to the agency’s rules on field of membership. CUNA said it will be watching for changes to “well-defined local communities” and also is urging a narrative approach to defining a community so that rather than relying solely on a quantitative argument a credit union can describe why a proposed area is a “community.”