WASHINGTON, DC (March 24, 2016) — National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU) Executive Vice President and General Counsel Carrie Hunt issued the following statement in response to the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) Board’s vote to finalize proposed changes to its permissible investment activities rule, supported by NAFCU, to expand the authority of federal credit unions to invest in bank notes.
“NAFCU and our members welcome the agency’s efforts to grant credit unions greater flexibility in their investment opportunities, offering much-needed regulatory relief,” said Hunt. “However, we would fully support NCUA doing more to expand the range of investment options available to federal credit unions.”
Since 1997, NCUA’s investments regulation has allowed federal credit unions to invest in bank notes, but it limited that to notes “with original weighted average maturities of less than five years.” The final rule removes the word “original” from the text of the regulation, thereby allowing federal credit unions to purchase bank notes that had original maturities of greater than five years but still have remaining maturities of less than five years.
The board today received a report on the Temporary Corporate Credit Union Stabilization Fund. The agency noted that no future assessments are expected in the Stabilization fund and that although Stabilization Fund continues to improve, credit unions should not expect a refund until 2021, when all borrowing is repaid. Hunt reiterated that NAFCU supports rebates on credit unions’ stabilization assessments “as soon as possible.”
The NCUA Board also approved today a request for two temporary positions to lead the effort to modernize the Call Report and AIRES platform. The program, entitled Enterprise Solutions Modernization (ESM), is intended to facilitate more off-site monitoring and less on-site examination time at credit unions. Hunt noted that this represents a long-term project with budget implications and that NAFCU will review this initiative carefully to evaluate its full impact on credit unions.
The National Association of Federal Credit Unions is the only national trade association focusing exclusively on federal issues affecting the nation’s federally insured credit unions. NAFCU membership is direct and provides credit unions with the best in federal advocacy, education and compliance assistance. www.nafcu.org.
The National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions is the only national trade association focusing exclusively on federal issues affecting the nation’s federally-insured credit unions. NAFCU membership is direct and provides credit unions with the best in federal advocacy, education and compliance assistance. For more information on NAFCU, go to www.nafcu.org or @NAFCU on Twitter.
