Compliance Blog

Many credit unions are communicating the fact that they are safe and sound to their members.

Good move.  But beware of the CAMEL bite.  

Credit unions are not free to share their CAMEL rating with their membership.  CAMEL ratings are confidential, and NCUA does not publish them.  Members, however, may question your sincerity if you refuse to give them that number. 

Well, point members to NCUA's frequently asked questions page.  Question and answer #11 address the CAMEL issue.

If you really want to slam the door on this issue, give the member this NCUA FOIA decision.  In the decision, NCUA indicates that:

The CAMEL Evaluation Form contains your credit union's ratios for the CAMEL components, the parameter code and its component and composite CAMEL ratings. This information fits squarely within exemption 8 of the FOIA, its release could harm the financial security of a credit union as well as interfere with the relationship between NCUA and the credit union. The Confidential Section of the examination contains information concerning the credit union's management and financial security. Its release could also cause the harms sought to be avoided by withholding the information under exemption 8. Although the Confidential Section may contain some additional information, courts do not require agencies to segregate and disclose those portions of documents that are unrelated to the financial condition of the institution.

This might make a good training topic for front-line staff.  I can just imagine a teller on his first day hearing a question about a credit union's camel.   A quick, confident response from a teller or member service representative should be enough for most members.