Board Meetings Results
Written by Sarah Loats Zimmermann
With our Annual Conference this week and two Board meetings yesterday it's been a bit busy around here so I'll hope you'll allow me a short post today.
As I noted a couple of days ago, both the NCUA and the Fed held Board meetings yesterday.
NCUA approved a voluntary corporate stabilization assessment prepayment program. For more information you can find the NAFCU Today article here. And NCUA's information here.
Also the Federal Reserve Board approved its debit card interchange rule by a vote of 4-1. The rule provides for a maximum interchange fee of the sum of a 21-cent base component plus 5 basis points of the transaction's value. While this is better than the proposed rule, it still isn't awesome. A few of the Board members expressed concern over whether the small issuer exemption would work in practice, and the Federal Reserve's Gov. Elizabeth Duke opposed the rule due to her concerns. However the sentiment seemed to be that they were hamstrung by the statute and the best they can do is monitor the exemption's effectiveness (so, basically, wait and see). The Board also approved an interim final rule that allows for an upward adjustment of no more than 1 cent to an issuer's debit card interchange fee if the issuer develops and implements policies and procedures reasonably designed to achieve the fraud-prevention standards set out in the interim final rule.
For more information you can read the NAFCU Today article.
And the Federal Reserve's press release is here, with links to the final rule and the interim final rule.