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The NCUA Tuesday released its proposed budget for 2020 and 2021, which estimates $316.2 and $325.9 million, respectively, for its operating budget. The 2020 budget also includes an increase of the number of staff by three positions. The agency will hold a budget briefing Nov. 20, before its November Board meeting.

"NAFCU appreciates the NCUA's commitment to an open and transparent budgeting process," said NAFCU President and CEO Dan Berger. "NAFCU firmly believes that a strong, yet cost-effective budget will ensure efficiencies can be maintained over the long-term. We look forward to reviewing the proposed budget, and we will provide the agency with our thoughtful feedback.”

NAFCU has long supported public budget briefings to help ensure transparency and accountability in the budgeting process, and has urged the agency to remain committed to eliminating inefficiencies and redundancies in its operations. Last year, NAFCU Board Chair Jeanne Kucey testified on the NCUA's draft budget and asked for "an efficient budget that can be maintained long-term without relying on annual increases."

The agency noted that a significant cost driver in the 2020 budget is the "increase in mandatory contributions all federal agencies must make to the Office of Personnel Management for the Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS)." The agency attributes 1.6 percent of the 3.9 percent budget increase between 2019 and 2020 to the increased FERS contributions.

Additionally, the 2020 combined total for operating, capital budget, and share insurance fund administration budgets is 1.1 percent higher than the 2020 funding level approved by the board last year. The combined budget totals $347.7 million for 2020 and $358.1 million for 2021.

"Careful stewardship of the resources credit unions make available to us includes being transparent and accountable," said NCUA Board Chairman Rodney Hood in a statement. "We strive to make credit union stakeholders aware of how and why we allocate those resources and that they are in the service of our mission to provide, through effective, not excessive, regulation, a safe-and-sound system of cooperative credit."

Comments on the proposed budget are due Dec. 2; NAFCU will submit comments and attend the Nov. 20 budget briefing, which will be streamed live on the agency's website. The NCUA Board is set to approve the final budget at its final meeting of the year Dec. 12.