Final Rule – Annual Operating Fee Assessment (Part
701)
The Board adopted a final rule
to amend its regulation governing assessment of the annual operating fee to
FCUs, including by:
- For
purposes of calculating the operating fee, excluding from “total assets”
any loan an FCU reports under the Paycheck Protection Program or similar
future programs approved for exclusion by the NCUA Board.
- Changing
the period used for the calculation of an FCU’s total assets. Currently,
total assets are calculated using the FCU’s December 31 Call Report of the
preceding year. Under the final rule, total assets will be calculated as
the average total assets reported on the FCU’s previous four Call Reports.
CUNA filed a comment
letter in support of these changes.
The final rule will become effective 30 days after
publication in the Federal Register.
NCUA’s 2021-2022 Budget
In a 2-1 vote, with Board Member Harper dissenting, the
Board approved its 2021-2022 budget.
Total 2021 funding presented in the updated Budget
Justification is $341,378,000, a decrease of 5.2% from the 2021 level
approved by the Board in December 2019 and a decrease of 1.7% from the
Board-approved 2020 level. The 2021 budget is comprised of the: Operating
Budget ($314.6 million), Capital Budget ($18.8 million), and Share Insurance
Fund Administrative Budget ($8 million).
Total 2022 funding presented in the updated Budget
Justification is $343,490,000, which represents an increase of 0.6% compared to
the updated 2021 funding level, but which is a decrease of 5.7% from the 2022
level presented in the staff draft.
As expected, Board Member Harper voted against the budget,
citing several concerns, including: an insufficient number of examiners
(necessary to ensure certain larger and/or riskier credit unions will be
properly examined), issues with the current examination scheduling policy, and
the lack of a proper consumer protection supervisory program.
Following Mike Schenk’s presentation
to the Board, CUNA sent a comprehensive comment
letter regarding the 2021-2022 agency budget.
Board Briefing – NCUA Operating Fee Schedule and
Overhead Transfer Rate
The Board approved a notice
that makes several clarifying changes to the methodology it uses to determine
how it apportions operating fees charged to FCUs. Specifically, the notice:
- Clarifies
the treatment of capital project budgets when calculating the operating
fees;
- Clarifies
the treatment of miscellaneous revenues when calculating the operating
fees; and
- Modifies
the approach for calculating the annual inflationary adjustments to the
thresholds for the operating fee rate tiers.
In addition, the notice also addressed feedback received in
response to a request for comment on (1) whether to increase the current $1
million asset-size threshold below which an FCU pays no fee, and (2) incentivizing
credit unions to complete the annual voluntary diversity survey. Based on
public input, the Board agreed with staff to further review both of these
issues before making any changes.
In CUNA’s comment
letter, we suggested increasing the asset threshold below which FCUs pay an
operating fee from $1 million to $10 million. Further, we supported a financial
incentive to encourage FCUs to participate in the diversity assessment but only
if a comparable incentive is available to FISCUs.