Compliance Blog

NCUA has announced that its Peer Ratios are available as of 12/31/2008.  These ratios take financial data submitted to NCUA by credit unions and organize them by credit union peer groups.  This not only allows you to see how your credit union is doing, but it shows you how other similar credit unions are faring.  Sure, this isn't necessarily compliance.  But at many credit unions, compliance people are the "answer" people.  So, if your management team has been waiting on this data, point them here. 

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Yesterday, NCUA held its monthly board meeting.  All board materials (final rules, for example) are available here. Of note:

Proposed Rule - Section 701.6 of NCUA’s Rules and Regulations, Operating Fee Calculation.  NCUA's Board approved a proposed amendment regarding the assessment of the federal credit union operating fee.   The proposal would exclude investments natural person federal credit unions make under the Credit Union System Investment Program (CU SIP) and the Credit Union Homeowners Affordability Relief Program (CU HARP) from the calculation of total assets.  Currently, the operating fee is calculated on the basis of total assets. 

Under the proposal, participating FCUs would continue to calculate their total assets in the same manner, except they would not include the dollar amount of any outstanding CU SIP or CU HARP investments.  The amendment is intended to ensure that credit unions do not risk paying a higher operating fee as a result of participating in the CU SIP or CU HARP programs.  The amendments will not affect the computation of the operating fee until 2010 because the operating fee is based on a federal credit union’s total assets as of the close of the previous fiscal year and funding for the CU SIP and CU HARP took place after January 1, 2009.

Final Rule – Section 740.4 of NCUA’s Rules and Regulations, Requirements for the Official Sign.The NCUA Board approved a final rule to amend Section 740.4 of NCUA’s rules requires that a federally insured credit union display the official NCUA sign at every teller station or window where insured funds or deposits are normally received.  Section 740.4(c) requires tellers accepting share deposits for both federally insured credit unions and non-federally insured credit unions to post a second sign adjacent to the official NCUA insurance sign.  This second sign must list each federally insured credit union served by the teller along with a statement that only these credit unions are federally insured.  With the evolution of shared branch networks it has become increasingly difficult to comply with this second signage requirement.  Accordingly, NCUA is revising the rule to replace the currently required listing of credit unions.  Instead, the teller must merely post a statement that not all of the credit unions served by the teller are federally insured and that members should contact their credit union if they need additional information.

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Have a great weekend, everyone!