Newsroom

January 16, 2018

NCUA releases 2018 operating fee schedule

The NCUA notified credit unions of the 2018 operating fee schedule in its Letter to Credit Unions 18-FCU-01 published Tuesday. The fee scale was raised 15.7 percent by the NCUA Board in November.

The fee scale applies to consumer-based federal credit unions, but those with less than $1 million in assets remain exempt from the fees. Federal credit unions with assets totaling more than $1 million can expect to receive the invoice for their respective operating fee in March and payments are due to the NCUA April 17.

During November's open meeting, the NCUA Board approved a budget of $298.1 million for 2018, up roughly 2 percent from its restated 2017 budget. Of that, $128.9 million will be funded through operating fees. The remaining amount will be funded through a 61.5 percent overhead transfer rate (OTR) and miscellaneous sources.

The NCUA Board during its November meeting approved of new OTR methodology, which is used to determine how much of NCUA's budget will be funded directly by the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund, putting in place a formula based on four underlying principles and eliminating the examination time survey. As the new methodology was developed, NAFCU consistently advocated for the agency to maintain an OTR formula based on objective and measurable inputs, which is the best way to prioritize fairness, accuracy and equity.

Letter 18-FCU-01 breaks down the formula for the operating fee and provides a link to an online fee calculator. NAFCU-member credit unions can calculate and compare the respective dollar amounts of their fiscal 2018 operating fees with the association's Operating Fee Calculator.