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NAFCU, NCUA’s Hood meet on CU industry hot topics
NCUA Board Member Rodney Hood met with NAFCU Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Greg Mesack, Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Ann Petros, and Senior Regulatory Affairs Counsel Aminah Moore Tuesday to discuss several topics of note.
The group discussed CDFI Fund transparency and the CDFI streamlined application phase-out, a topic NAFCU and Inclusiv discussed earlier this year when they met with NCUA Chairman Todd Harper and other NCUA staff.
NAFCU, on several occasions, has urged the CDFI Fund to streamline their certification process and address the current application backlog, as it has kept many applicants, including credit unions, waiting for months before they hear from the organization.
The association recently published several issue briefs, including one on CDFIs, to help credit unions stay informed on this topic. In addition, NAFCU sent members a message, urging them to contact the CDFI Fund and their lawmakers to push them to address concerns around the CDFI certification process. Members can go to the NAFCU Grassroots Action Center to contact elected officials on this and a number of other important issues.
In addition, the group discussed the NCUA’s field of membership (FOM) rules regarding survivorship. NAFCU wrote to the NCUA in March to urge the agency to initiate a rulemaking to expand its Chartering and FOM Manual to include all “immediate family” in the event of a credit union member’s passing. As the manual is currently written, when a federal credit union member passes, only their spouse is eligible for membership. Any other immediate family member – even if they were eligible to join that credit union during the time the member was living – will become ineligible.
NAFCU staff reiterated the association’s recommendation for the NCUA to amend Part 701.36 on federal credit union occupancy, planning, and disposal of acquired and abandoned premises and accidental powers to reduce the requirement that credit unions occupy at least 50 percent of their premises, and instead require a minimum of 25 percent occupancy and use.
NAFCU staff also discussed the association’s call for the agency to eliminate a requirement that a federally-insured credit union’s (FICUs) internal written loan participation policies must establish a limit on the amount of aggregate loan participations that may be purchased by a single borrower, or a group of associated borrowers, not to exceed 15 percent of the FICUs net worth.
NAFCU will remain engaged with the NCUA to ensure credit unions are protected from burdensome regulatory requirements.