CU Insight

July 18, 2012

The Honorable Deborah Matz
Chairman
National Credit Union Administration
1775 Duke Street
Alexandria, VA  22314

RE: NCUA 2012 Mid-Year Budget Review

Dear Chairman Matz:

On behalf of the National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU), the only trade association that exclusively represents federal credit unions (FCUs), I am writing to you regarding the National Credit Union Administration’s (NCUA) 2012 mid-year budget review.

As the NCUA finalizes its mid-year budget review in anticipation of the July 24, 2012 NCUA Board meeting, NAFCU again strongly urges the NCUA Board to look at each line item of the budget with the explicit goal of achieving cost-savings.  The agency should leave no stone unturned to find savings and other tools to decrease the agency’s 2012 expenses. Every dollar saved by NCUA in its operating expenses means that credit unions will be able to better serve their members.

Further, NAFCU calls on the agency to ensure that assessments for the Temporary Corporate Credit Union Stabilization Fund are as low as possible, even below the lower end of the estimated range, if appropriate.

Simply stated, NAFCU believes that it is incumbent on the agency, as the steward of the money it receives from federally-insured credit unions and their members, that each penny it collects is administered with the utmost diligence and respect to credit unions that pay for the operating expenses and administration of the agency.
 
Finally, I would again note NAFCU’s considerable concern that in 2012, for the third year in a row, NCUA released and approved its annual budget without a formal hearing, thereby depriving the credit union industry, from which the agency receives its total funding, of the opportunity to weigh in on the agency’s budget.  NAFCU wholeheartedly objects to this continued practice and calls on the agency to be transparent in the budget process.

I look forward to hearing from you regarding this important matter.  Should you have any questions or would like to discuss these issues further, please contact me by telephone at (703) 842-2215 or by email at fbecker@nafcu.org.

Sincerely,

Fred R. Becker, Jr.
President/CEO