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The NCUA Board yesterday approved a $4.1 million 2015 budget for the Temporary Corporate Credit Union Stabilization Fund – down 8.9 percent from the 2014 budget.

NAFCU welcomed the board's action. "NAFCU is pleased to see that the stabilization fund itself continues to perform well and that the oversight budget, which funds the TCCUSF's operations and related litigation, continues to decrease," said Carrie Hunt, NAFCU's senior vice president of government affairs and general counsel.

She added, "We appreciate Board Member McWatters' efforts to provide increased transparency from NCUA regarding legal costs being paid out of the fund. However, we continue to urge greater transparency from NCUA regarding the legal costs being paid by credit unions related to the lawsuits associated with the corporate credit union losses."

McWatters, in December's issue of The NCUA Report, pushed for increased transparency and fewer costs. "As a Board, we should remain mindful that we are spending other peoples' money – that is, the scarce resources of federal and state-chartered credit unions and their members," he said. During Thursday's open board meeting, he thanked NCUA staff for providing additional disclosures on costs being paid by the fund and pointed out that a competitive bidding process is used whenever possible for contract services.

The TCCUSF oversight budget will fund five full-time equivalents – the same number as last year. The fund manages $22 billion in legacy assets. Contract costs represent 73 percent of the budget, which is entirely funded from TCCUSF and has no impact on the recently approved 2015 Operating Fund budget for the agency.