NAFCU’s Long urges NCUA to examine opportunities for cost-savings in proposed 2023-2024 budget
During yesterday’s NCUA Board 2023-2024 budget briefing, NAFCU Chief Economist and Vice President of Research Curt Long thanked the board for its ongoing commitment to transparency surrounding the budget while stressing the need for the agency to fully adopt lessons learned in its approach to travel and examinations to achieve long-term budget reductions.
Long noted that the NCUA’s budget continues to increase, and the proposed 2023-2024 budget once again overlooks opportunities for cost-savings. “NAFCU urges the NCUA to rein in the recent trend of substantially increased budgets,” said Long.
Among Long’s recommendations to achieve budget reductions, he urged the NCUA to prioritize a hybrid exam model to reduce travel costs. The draft budget currently includes a large increase for travel expenses, reaching 75 percent of pre-pandemic levels of spending.
“NAFCU questions why, when reduction in travel did not negatively impact agency operations over the past three years, the NCUA would choose to only use offsite examination procedures and virtual training ‘when suitable’ instead of offsite examinations with limited onsite presence,” said Long.
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