NAFCU’s Berger, NCUA’s Harper discuss ways to bolster CU success

NAFCU President and CEO Dan Berger met with NCUA Chairman Todd Harper Wednesday at the agency’s headquarters in Alexandria, Va., to discuss credit union priorities, including several of NAFCU’s recent requests to the agency.

NAFCU Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Greg Mesack, Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Ann Petros, and Regulatory Affairs Counsel James Akin were also in attendance at the meeting.

During the meeting, NAFCU reiterated its request for NCUA to raise the permissible interest rate ceiling to mitigate unnecessary interest rate risks facing federal credit unions. NAFCU also urged the agency to establish a floating permissible interest rate ceiling equal to a 15 percent spread over the prime rate or alternatively extend the 18 percent permissible interest rate ceiling for the maximum allowable period of 18 months, no fewer than 90 days before its scheduled expiration on March 10, 2023.

The group also discussed ways to help credit unions better serve their members by adopting lessons learned from the pandemic. NCUA last month issued a Letter to Federal Credit Unions which contained NAFCU-sought flexibility around virtual and hybrid annual meetings. Relatedly, the group discussed amending regulations in Part 701.36 on federal credit union occupancy to grant additional flexibility to credit unions.

 

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