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The NCUA Board approved a mid-year operating budget during its meeting Thursday that included a $1.1 million reduction due in part to a net decrease in employee pay, benefits and travel costs.

During the board meeting, Chairman Debbie Matz noted that this is the fifth straight year in which the agency's mid-year budget review yielded at least a $1 million reduction. She asked staff about how more vacancy savings – or monies saved in employee-related expenditures – might affect the 2014 budget going forward; NCUA Chief Financial Officer Mary Ann Woodson explained that more savings would offset next year's budget. Board Member Michael Fryzel clarified that an offsetting is essentially a "rebate" for credit unions because it will be subtracted from future operating fees.

The mid-year budget also reflected two new staff positions at the agency. Other budget increases included:

• an increase of $63,000 in rent, communications and utilities costs;
• an increase of $143,000 in administrative costs;
• an increase of $238,000 in contracted services; and
• an increase of $270,000 in the capital acquisitions budget.

Fryzel also noted that costs associated with building of a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, or SCIF – which the agency was mandated to create after an executive order – are contributing to the agency's budget total.

The net reduction in costs came in part from a decrease of $1.5 million in employee pay and benefits and a decrease of $289,000 in travel expenses.

NAFCU continues to urge the agency to exercise caution with the funding it receives from federally insured credit unions and to consistently look for cost-saving measures on their behalf. The association also encourages NCUA to be more transparent about the amount of funding disbursed and allocated for the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund, the Temporary Corporate Credit Union Stabilization Fund and the Central Liquidity Fund, all of which are both comprised of monies paid by credit unions.