Compliance Blog

NCUA has released Letter to Credit Union 09-CU-10.  You can access it here.

Following the conservatorships of WesCorp and U.S. Central, many credit unions asked about the status of their paid-in-capital and their membership capital.  This letter was designed to answer the numerous questions posed to NCUA. Rather than rehash it, I urge you to review the guidance - especially if your credit union is a member of either institution.

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If anyone wondered what President Obama's administration thinks about federal preemption of state laws, one only has to review this memo from the White House.  It will remain to be seen what effect it has.  But it clearly is not a "hooray for preemption" sort of document.

To ensure that executive departments and agencies include statements of preemption in regulations only when such statements have a sufficient legal basis:

1. Heads of departments and agencies should not include in regulatory preambles statements that the department or agency intends to preempt State law through the regulation except where preemption provisions are also included in the codified regulation.
2. Heads of departments and agencies should not include preemption provisions in codified regulations except where such provisions would be justified under legal principles governing preemption, including the principles outlined in Executive Order 13132.
3. Heads of departments and agencies should review regulations issued within the past 10 years that contain statements in regulatory preambles or codified provisions intended by the department or agency to preempt State law, in order to decide whether such statements or provisions are justified under applicable legal principles governing preemption. Where the head of a department or agency determines that a regulatory statement of preemption or codified regulatory provision cannot be so justified, the head of that department or agency should initiate appropriate action, which may include amendment of the relevant regulation.