NCUA Chairman J. Mark McWatters wrote a key lawmaker Tuesday to correct a banking trade’s mischaracterization of the $1.1 billion in legal fees the agency has paid in connection with its more than $5 billion in recoveries from banking institutions for losses to corporate credit unions.

The Independent Community Bankers of America has asserted that these fees came from taxpayer dollars. Like NAFCU President and CEO Dan Berger noted in his own letter Friday, McWatters told House Financial Institutions Subcommittee on Oversight Chairman Ann Wagner, R-Mo., that the ICBA is incorrect in its assertion.

McWatters noted that he regards the fees as excessive but made clear they did not affect taxpayers. Instead, they were paid out of the proceeds of the settlements the NCUA reached with firms that sold faulty mortgage securities to several now-defunct corporate credit unions.

 

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