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NAFCU President and CEO Dan Berger emphasized the association's and its members' concerns about the NCUA's ever-increasing budget and urged the agency to find cost savings wherever possible during remarks he gave at the agency board's budget briefing today.

"Since 2006, the industry has seen a 25 percent decrease in the number of credit unions, while seeing a doubling of the NCUA budget," Berger said during his remarks. "This type of budget growth is unsustainable and unjustified. Fewer credit unions should mean a smaller budget. NCUA justifies its budget increases by pointing to industry asset growth, however, determination of the budget should not hinge on this factor alone. Size does not equal complexity.

"NCUA should be striving to achieve economies of scale and cost-savings from the reduced number of credit unions requiring examinations and decreased range of asset concentration," Berger continued. "This should decrease the agency's operating budget and free up additional NCUA resources."

Berger expressed appreciation for the level of detail provided in the budget documents. In specific recommendations, he urged that the NCUA address needed cybersecurity examination updates within the budget's existing parameters, and he reiterated NAFCU's request that the agency extend the exam cycle for all well-run, low-risk credit unions, not just those below a certain asset-size threshold. He also said streamlined field-of-membership application procedures and better collaboration with other regulators would save the agency and credit unions time and money.

Additionally, Berger said the NCUA should only approve one year's budget at a time, and he urged the agency to do everything possible to allow for an expeditious refund to credit unions on corporate stabilization in the wake of the agency's final payment to the Treasury Department from the Temporary Corporate Credit Union Stabilization Fund.

The NCUA's discussion draft budgets for 2017 and 2018 project $299.2 million and $313.1 million in spending, respectively, over those two years. The agency is accepting comments on the budget until Nov. 4.