Proposed Regulations

On March 27, 2020, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) published a proposed rule to amend the NCUA’s corporate credit union rules in Part 704. The proposal makes four notable changes, summarized below.

On March 10, 2020, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) published a proposed rule to grant certain credit unions the ability to issue subordinated debt. In general, subordinated debt would resemble secondary capital, which low-income designated credit unions (LICUs) can already issue; however, regulatory capital treatment would vary depending on the type of issuing credit union.

On January 30, 2019, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) published a proposed rule to create new Subpart D of Part 708a of its regulations to clarify the procedures and requirements currently in place related to combination transactions. Combination transactions include transactions where a federally-insured credit union (FICU) proposes to assume assets and liabilities from a bank, or a non-depository financial institution, such as a mortgage bank, as part of a merger or consolidation.

On December 6, 2019, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (Bureau) issued a proposed rule to amend Regulation E’s remittance transfer provisions (the Remittance Rule).

On November 29, 2019, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) published a notice of proposed rulemaking to amend Part 722 of the NCUA’s regulations regarding certain residential real estate appraisals.

On November 7, 2019, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) published a proposed rule, with a 30-day comment period, to amend its Chartering and Field of Membership (FOM) Manual (Chartering Manual) to provide community credit unions with greater flexibility to include certain geographic areas in their FOMs. The proposal makes and clarifies changes consistent with the August 2019 opinion from the D.C. Circuit Court in the bankers’ lawsuit against the 2016 FOM final rule.

On October 17, 2019, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (collectively, the “agencies”), issued a proposed interagency policy statement on allowances for credit losses.

On September 18, 2019, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) issued a request for information (RFI) to solicit comment on the potential use of tech sprints to encourage innovation and address regulatory compliance challenges. Tech sprints will involve small teams of regulators, technologists, financial institutions, and subject matter experts working together for several days to develop solutions to clearly identified problems in a collaborative environment.

On August 19, 2019, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued a proposed rule to amend its interpretation of the Fair Housing Act's disparate impact standard to better reflect the Supreme Court's 2015 ruling in Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project, Inc. In this regard, the new rule adopts more comprehensive pleading requirements.

On August 15, 2019, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued a proposed Accounting Standards Update (ASU) to extend the effective dates for major standards not yet in effect. For the current expected credit losses (CECL) standard, credit unions would comply beginning in January 2023.

On August 9, 2019, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) published a notice and request for comment on a new, faster payments settlement service called FedNow. FedNow will be a 24x7x365 real-time gross settlement (RTGS) service with integrated clearing functionality designed to process individual payments within seconds.

On July 31, 2019, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (Bureau or CFPB) published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) regarding potential revisions to the definition of a qualified mortgage (QM) under the Truth in Lending Act (TILA).

On July 29, 2019, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) published a proposed Interpretive Ruling and Policy Statement (IRPS) regarding statutory prohibitions imposed by Section 205(d) of the Federal Credit Union Act (FCU Act) (“Second Chance IRPS”). Section 205(d) prohibits, except with the prior written consent of the Board, any person who has been convicted of any criminal offense involving dishonesty or breach of trust, or who has entered into a pretrial diversion or similar program in connection with a prosecution for such offense, from participating in the affairs of an insured credit union.

On June 26, 2019, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) published a proposal to delay the effective date of the NCUA's October 2015 final rule regarding risk-based capital (2015 Final Rule), along with its November 2018 supplemental final rule regarding risk-based capital (2018 Supplemental Rule), by two years until January 1, 2022.

On May 30, 2019, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) published a proposal to amend its public unit and nonmember share rule to allow federal credit unions (FCUs) to receive public unit (e.g., the U.S. government, states, and political subdivisions therein) and nonmember shares up to 50 percent of the credit union's paid-in and unimpaired capital and surplus less any public unit and nonmember shares.

On May 21, 2019, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (Bureau or CFPB) published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to amend Regulation F, which implements the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA).

On May 15, 2019, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (Bureau or CFPB) published a request for comments in connection with the Bureau’s plan for required review of its rules under section 610 of the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA). The RFA requires the Bureau to periodically consider whether a significant rule should be continued without change, amended, or rescinded to minimize any significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities.

On May 16, 2019, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) published a notice and request for comments regarding proposed modifications to the Federal Reserve Banks' (Reserve Banks) payment services to facilitate adoption of a later same-day automated clearinghouse (ACH) processing and settlement window.

On May 13, 2019, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (Bureau or CFPB) published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to solicit comments on whether to make changes to the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) transactional and institutional thresholds that exempt smaller lenders from data reporting requirements under Regulation C.

On May 8, 2019, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (Bureau or CFPB) published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) to solicit comments on whether to make changes to the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data points that credit unions are required to report.

On May 15, 2019, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (Bureau or CFPB) published a request for comments in connection with its required review of the 2009 Overdraft Rule under the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA). The RFA requires the Bureau to consider whether a significant rule should be continued without change, amended, or rescinded to minimize any significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. Accordingly, the Bureau seeks comment not only on burdens to credit unions but also consumer benefits associated with the rule.