Compliance Blog

Written by Steve Van Beek

Yesterday, we discussed NCUA's annual regulatory review.  I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I hoped NCUA would review their guidance as well.  An example might help illustrate how NCUA could review their guidance and reduce the headaches for compliance officers.  

Part 701.33.  NCUA will be reviewing Part 701.33 of its regulations which addresses reimbursement, insurance, and indemnification of officials and employees.  To me, it would be very beneficial to credit unions if NCUA's review of Part 701.33 involved an analysis of their opinion letters and whether it would be appropriate to clarify the regulation.  

Example.  An advanced search on NCUA's website (under the Legal Opinion Letters category) for "701.33" comes up with 30 NCUA Legal Opinion Letters.  There are extremely old letters as well as quite a few recent letters.  

Suggestion.  Considering the current 12 C.F.R. 701.33 has resulted in 30 formal legal opinion letters over the years, wouldn't it make sense for NCUA to update the regulation to codify these interpretations?  Perhaps NCUA could issue Official Staff Commentary that would provide clarity to credit unions to prevent compliance officers from having to wade through numerous legal opinion letters to ensure they have correct interpretation from NCUA.

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NAFCU Members.  NAFCU's Regulatory Alert on Loan Workouts and Nonaccrual Policy and Regulatory Reporting of Troubled Debt Restructured Loans is available.  The proposal has a short comment period with comments due to NAFCU on February 17th.  NCUA is accepting comments until March 1st.