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The NCUA Board today will vote on a proposal to reform field-of-membership requirements for all charter types and on the 2016/2017 budget during an open meeting that begins at 10 a.m. Eastern.

In July, NCUA Board Chairman Debbie Matz said the agency would propose additional changes to its FOM rules to permit more expansive single-common bond, multiple-common bond and community charters. NAFCU welcomes this proposed move; it sent the agency a white paper with recommendations for eased FOM rules in May.

Regarding NCUA's 2016/2017 budget, NAFCU President and CEO Dan Berger last week urged NCUA to consider and justify each expense. "NAFCU is deeply concerned that a biennial budget will be inefficient and ineffective because it will yield inaccurate projections that will ultimately have to be refined by the agency after the first year," Berger wrote in a letter to the board members. "When NCUA utilized a biennial budgeting process from 2008-2011, the agency consistently revised and increased its second-year projected budget."

The 2015 budget was set at $279.5 million, up 4.2 percent from 2014; it was reduced $1.3 million this July during budget reprogramming. The 2015 operating fee scale was down 0.9 percent from 2014, and all federal credit unions with assets of less than $1 million pay no fees. The overhead transfer rate this year is 71.8 percent, up from 69.2 percent in 2014.

During today's meeting, the board is also expected to announce any expectations regarding a 2015 NCUSIF premium or Temporary Corporate Credit Union Stabilization Fund assessment on credit unions. NCUA has maintained it expects no additional stabilization fund assessments will be needed based on current performance expectations.

Also slated is a quarterly report on the stabilization fund and the agency's 2016/2017 annual performance plan. The TCCUSF 2016/2017 oversight budget will also be addressed alongside the NCUA operating budget.