Compliance Blog

Written by JiJi Bahhur, Director of Regulatory Compliance

With 2014 coming to an end, I thought I'd put on your radar some of the more recent items released by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) during this very busy holiday season.

MSB Exam Guidance from the NCUA.  For sake of not bogging you down on New Year’s Eve, I won’t be covering this guidance in any detail here (but we’ll be sure to do so in a very near future blog post).  What I do want to do is put it on your radar in case you missed it during the busy holiday season.

Just briefly, what is this guidance?  NCUA released Letter to Credit Unions 14-CU-10 (“letter”) to provide guidance to credit unions that provide or intend to provide account services to a money service business (MSB).  In the letter, it discusses what an MSB is, the potential risks posed by MSBs, and how a credit union can mitigate those risks.  Moreover, the letter advises credit unions to review the enclosed examiner guidance – Supervisory Letter No. 14-05 – because NCUA’s field staff have been provided this examiner guidance and will use it to evaluate credit unions that provide account services to MSBs.   

First 2015 Grant Round for Low-Income CUs.  With an application period between February 2 and March 3, 2015, NCUA is inviting applications for low-income credit unions interested in providing staff training or hiring interns through use of funds from the Community Development Revolving Loan Fund.  NCUA has stated that it will provide at least $360,000 in funding during this first grant round in 2015, which will cover more than 100 requests from low-income credit unions for internships or staff or volunteer training programs.  If you are designated as a low-income credit union, check out the NCUA’s announcement here for more information and how to apply.  

Latest Videos from the NCUA.  In the last couple of weeks, the NCUA has made available the following videos:

• NCUA Assessment Update - Stabilization Fund –posted on December 16^th, the video is based on information presented at the July 2014 NCUA open Board meeting. 
• New Economic Update Video – posted on December 23^rd, this video covers the latest economic activity, the 2015 economic outlook and the performance of federally insured credit unions during the third quarter.
• New NCUA Video Outlining Field of Membership Options and Strategies – posted on December 29^th, the video provides an overview of the various field of membership types available to federal credit unions and briefly identifies expansion and conversion opportunities available for each field of membership type.

***

Programming Note.  NAFCU’s offices will close today at noon for the New Year and will reopen on Monday, January 5.  Happy New Year to you all! We’ll be back to blogging on Monday.

***

Speaking of the holidays – my two-year old twins, Kyse and Ava, had a blast opening presents and going from house to house visiting family.  Some photos from the festivities:

Happy New Year to you all!