Compliance Blog

Feb 14, 2014
Categories: Accounts

A Regulatory Romantic Friday- NCUA Updates Share Insurance Estimator and Brochures; Chairman Matz holds Townhall Webinar

Written by Alicia Nealon, Regulatory Compliance Counsel

Happy Valentine’s Day Compliance Community! In the Valentine's Day of Hallmark’s fantasies, we’d be showered in roses, candy, cards, and assorted heart-shaped items. But our realities may be decidedly less romantic. Well if Cupid passed you by this Valentine’s Day, don’t worry- NCUA has issued some of its own “love letters” in the last few weeks.

First, in January NCUA announced a redesigned version of the E-Calculator, now called the Share Insurance Estimator, which allows credit union members to calculate share insurance coverage and ask questions. It still serves the same function as the previous Calculator, but now allows credit union members to fill out information while consulting reference materials, among other improvements to navigability and content. 

Second, in early February, the agency released a revised version of its booklet Your Insured Funds, which NCUA says presents the latest share insurance coverage information in a new, easy-to-read format helpful to credit unions as well as their members. The updated booklet, 61 pages long, explains how credit union members’ accounts are covered by the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund. NCUA also publishes a briefer, six-panel brochure, How Your Accounts are Federally Insured, which gives the highlights of account coverage. Both can be downloaded online or ordered via the mail and telephone. To order these resources, complete the order form available here or call (703) 518-6340.

Finally, on Wednesday, NCUA Chairman Debbie Matz hosted a Townhall webinar with CFPB Director Richard Cordray, during which time she stressed how seriously the agency considers feedback on proposed rules. Specifically addressing the agency’s proposed rule on risk-based capital, Chairman Matz acknowledged the various concerns surrounding the rule, such as its individual minimum-capital requirements. She discussed that NCUA sometimes revises its rules between the proposed stage and the final rule and that the agency will take a hard look at credit unions’ concerns as the capital proposal moves forward. In addition to raising concerns about the proposal, NAFCU has completed a Regulatory Alert on the proposed rule and is currently taking comments from our members.

If all these goodies from NCUA aren’t enough to satisfy the regulatory romantic in all of us this Valentine’s Day, I will close with this thought (that will likely get me laughed out of the office, but alas, if you can’t be corny on Valentine’s Day- when can you be??)

Roses are red,

Violets are Blue,

We here at NAFCU simply LOVE YOU!

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If you like what you read here, consider signing up for Anthony Demangone’s blog on management and leadership – Musings from the CU Suite. Anthony is an NCCO and used to head up Compliance at NAFCU.  You can visit the blog here, or sign up to have it delivered via email.

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Programming Note.  NAFCU’s offices will close today at noon for the President’s Day holiday and will reopen on Tuesday, February 18th.  We will be back to blogging on Wednesday, February 19th.