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NCUA will address any need for a share insurance premium during the agency's open board meeting in September, staff said Thursday, but for now any premium for next year is estimated to be within a range of 0-6 basis points.

NAFCU Chief Economist and Director of Research Curt Long said a premium seems unlikely at the moment.

"The currentcombination of low interest rates, moderate share growth and rising agency expenses is creating stress for the fund; however, I believe it is unlikely to precipitate an assessment in the near term," said Long. "The potential for a premium assessment in 2016/17 would be a recession which keeps rates at present levels or lower while also boosting share growth as households seek a safe harbor for their financial assets."

NCUA reported Thursday that the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund incurred total insurance loss expense of $25.9 million during the second quarter, which ended June 30; this exceeds the budgeted figure, $16.5 million, and represents the net of $9.8 million in fund recoveries and a $35.7 million addition to reserves. Total reserves for future losses are $178.9 million; of that, just $4.5 million is allocated to specific cases.

The fund had a net loss of $21.8 million in the second quarter; it had $2.2 million in net income for the first half of the year.

From January through June, there have been 11 credit union failures at a total cost to the fund of $8.5 million, staff said. Fraud was a contributing factor in all six of the failures recorded in the second quarter.

As of June 30, there were a total of 209 problem credit unions – those with CAMEL codes of 4 or 5; this is down from 218 in March. The code 4 and 5 credit unions as of June held a total of $8.4 billion in insured shares, or 0.85 percent of all federally insured shares. This is up from 0.78 percent in March.

The NCUSIF ended June with an equity ratio of 1.24 percent; NCUA says that's expected to rise to 1.27 percent in October with the 1 percent deposit adjustment that will be made by insured credit unions with more than $50 million in assets. That is presuming no changes in anticipated loss patterns. As of June 30, insured shares total $998.5 billion.