Newsroom

The NCUA Board today proposed the first major revamp of its field-of-membership rules, covering all charter types, in more than 10 years. The proposal is out for a 60-day comment period.

"NAFCU applauds the NCUA Board for proposing the most comprehensive field-of-membership reform initiative that the industry has seen in over a decade," said NAFCU President and CEO Dan Berger. "As commerce and consumer behavior continue to rapidly evolve with innovative technologies, we are pleased to see that the agency listened to our member credit unions' suggestions on how to keep pace with today's marketplace. NAFCU is carefully reviewing the proposal, and we look forward to working with NCUA to ensure that this rule provides requisite regulatory relief for federal credit unions."

Still on today's schedule, the NCUA Board will vote on a 2016/2017 budget. NAFCU continues to press the agency to find cost savings wherever possible to mitigate costs for credit unions. "While NAFCU and our members appreciate the NCUA Board's continued commitment to increasing budget transparency, we firmly believe that more can be done to ensure that credit union dollars are being spent efficiently and effectively," Berger said. "The agency has not held a public hearing on its budget in six years, and credit unions deserve the chance to be a part of the process that they ultimately fund."

NCUA did confirm the likelihood of no share insurance or stabilization fund assessment for 2015; no stabilization assessments are considered likely for the foreseeable future.

The proposed 2016 budget is set at $290.9 million and $302.9 million for 2017. The 2016 operating fee scale will be down 0.47 percent from 2015, and all federal credit unions with assets of less than $1 million will pay no fees. The overhead transfer rate for 2016 will be set at 73.1 percent, up from 71.8 percent in 2015. The board also confirmed the likelihood of no share insurance or stabilization fund assessment for 2015.