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NAFCU's Cybersecurity and Payments Committee will meet at 2 p.m. Eastern today to discuss current cyber and payments challenges facing the credit union industry amid NCUA's exam focus on cybersecurity, a first this year for the agency.

In January, NCUA announced that the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council's cybersecurity assessment tool, released in 2015, will be incorporated into the agency's exam process in the second half of this year. NAFCU, while supporting credit unions' use of the tool, has urged NCUA to keep it voluntary.

NAFCU also continues to support the "Data Security Act of 2015" (H.R. 2205/S. 961), and it has urged the National Institute of Standards and Technology to help educate lawmakers and regulators about emerging cybersecurity threats and the need for real-time, multi-sector collaboration to prevent consumer data breaches.

Regarding the payments system, NAFCU is a member of both the Federal Reserve's Faster Payments Task Force and Secure Payments Task Force. NAFCU has urged the Fed against a "one size fits all" approach in determining the payments system's future and continues to advocate that any new payments system be cost-effective, efficient and scalable for credit unions of all sizes.

Last September, the Fed approved mandatory same-day automated clearinghouse processing, which mirrors the final rule adopted by NACHA – The Electronic Payments Association. The first phase of same-day ACH payments starts implementation Sept. 23.

NAFCU has expressed concerns regarding the breadth of participation and institutions' ability to recover costs as they move to same-day ACH payments, and it has emphasized the need for an industry-driven solution to achieving faster payments.