The NCUA Staff Draft 2023-2024 Budget Justification, 60446-60492 [2022-21457]

Agencies

• National Credit Union Administration

[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 192 (Wednesday, October 5, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 60446-60492]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-21457]



[[Page 60445]]

Vol. 87

Wednesday,

No. 192

October 5, 2022

Part II





National Credit Union Administration





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The NCUA Staff Draft 2023-2024 Budget Justification; Notice

Federal Register / Vol. 87 , No. 192 / Wednesday, October 5, 2022 / 
Notices

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NATIONAL CREDIT UNION ADMINISTRATION

[NCUA-2022-0145]


The NCUA Staff Draft 2023-2024 Budget Justification

AGENCY: National Credit Union Administration (NCUA).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The NCUA's staff draft, ``detailed business-type budget'' is 
being made available for public review as required by federal statute. 
The proposed resources will finance the agency's annual operations and 
capital projects, both of which are necessary for the agency to 
accomplish its mission. The briefing schedule and comment instructions 
are included in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section.

DATES: Requests to deliver an in-person statement at the budget 
briefing must be received on or before October 12, 2022. Written 
statements and presentations for those scheduled to appear at the 
budget briefing must be received on or before 5 p.m. Eastern, October 
14, 2022.
    Written comments without public presentation at the budget briefing 
may be submitted by October 28, 2022.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods 
(please send comments by one method only):
     In-person presentation at public budget briefing: submit 
requests to deliver a statement at the briefing to 
[email protected] by October 12, 2022. Include your name, title, 
affiliation, mailing address, email address, and telephone number. Your 
statement must be submitted to the same email address by 5 p.m. 
Eastern, October 14, 2022. The NCUA Board Secretary will inform you if 
you have been approved to make a presentation, and you will be allotted 
five minutes during the budget briefing to deliver your remarks. Your 
presentation must be delivered in person at the public budget briefing.
     Written comments without an in-person presentation: submit 
written comments by October 28, 2022, through the Federal eRulemaking 
Portal: https://www.regulations.gov. The docket number is NCUA-2022-
0145. Follow the instructions for submitting comments.
     Copies of the NCUA Draft 2023-2024 Budget Justification 
and associated materials are also available on the NCUA website at 
https://www.ncua.gov/About/Pages/budget-strategic-planning/supplementary-materials.aspx.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Eugene H. Schied, Chief Financial 
Officer, National Credit Union Administration, 1775 Duke Street, 
Alexandria, Virginia 22314-3428 or telephone: (703) 518-6571.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The following itemized list details the 
documents attached to this notice and made available for public review:

I. The NCUA Budget in Brief
II. Introduction and Strategic Context
III. Key Themes of the 2023-2024 Budget
IV. Operating Budget
V. Capital Budget
VI. Share Insurance Fund Administrative Budget
VII. Financing the NCUA Programs
VIII. Appendix A: Supplemental Budget Information
IX: Appendix B: Capital Projects

    Section 212 of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer 
Protection Act amended 12 U.S.C. 1789(b)(1)(A) to require the NCUA 
Board (Board) to ``make publicly available and publish in the Federal 
Register a draft of the detailed business-type budget.'' Although 12 
U.S.C. 1789(b)(1)(A) requires publication of a ``business-type budget'' 
only for the agency operations arising under the Federal Credit Union 
Act's subchapter on insurance activities, in the interest of 
transparency the Board is providing the agency's entire staff draft 
2023-2024 Budget Justification (staff draft budget) in this Notice.
    The staff draft budget details the resources required to support 
NCUA's mission. The staff draft budget includes personnel and dollar 
estimates for three major budget components: (1) the Operating Budget; 
(2) the Capital Budget; and (3) the Share Insurance Fund Administrative 
Budget. The resources proposed in the staff draft budget will be used 
to carry out the agency's operations in 2023 and 2024. This document is 
a draft, staff-level budget proposal made available to the NCUA Board 
members and the public for their consideration and comment. The NCUA 
Board directed the NCUA Executive Director to develop the staff draft 
budget under delegated authority. The staff draft budget may change 
based on public comments, Board member decisions, and staff's ongoing 
consideration of estimates and programs that impact the budget.
    The NCUA Chief Financial Officer will present the staff draft 
budget at a budget briefing open to the public and scheduled for 
Wednesday, October 19, 2022, at 10:00 a.m. Eastern at the NCUA 
headquarters building, 1775 Duke Street, Alexandria, Virginia 22314. 
Interested parties unable to attend in person may visit the agency's 
homepage (www.ncua.gov) to access the provided webcast link.
    If you wish to participate in the briefing and deliver a statement, 
you must email a request to [email protected] by October 12, 
2022. Your request must include your name, title, affiliation, mailing 
address, email address, and telephone number. Statements must be 
delivered in person at the briefing. The NCUA will work to accommodate 
as many public statements as possible at the October 19, 2022 budget 
briefing. The Board Secretary will inform you if you have been approved 
to make a presentation and you will be allotted five minutes during the 
budget briefing to deliver your remarks. A written copy of your 
statement must be delivered to the Board Secretary via email at 
[email protected] by 5 p.m. Eastern, October 14, 2022. In 
addition to delivering their remarks at the budget briefing, registered 
presenters will be provided the opportunity to ask questions of NCUA 
staff about the staff draft budget. The initial round of questions will 
be limited to 5 minutes per presenter, and one subsequent round of 
questions, limited to 5 minutes per presenter, may be permitted by the 
Chairman if time allows.
    Written comments on the staff draft budget without an in-person 
presentation will also be accepted by October 28, 2022, through the 
Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov. The docket 
number is NCUA-2022-0145. Commenters should follow the portal 
instructions for submitting comments.
    All comments should provide specific, actionable recommendations 
about the staff draft budget rather than general remarks. The Board 
will review and consider any comments from the public prior to 
approving the NCUA 2023-2024 budget.

    By the National Credit Union Administration Board on September 
29, 2022.
Melane Conyers-Ausbrooks,
Secretary of the Board.

I. The NCUA Budget in Brief

Proposed 2023 and 2024 Budgets

    The National Credit Union Administration's (NCUA) 2022-2026 
Strategic Plan sets forth the agency's goals and objectives that form 
the basis for determining resource needs and allocations. The annual 
budget provides the resources to execute the strategic plan, to 
implement important initiatives, and to undertake the NCUA's major 
programs: examination and supervision, insurance, credit union

[[Page 60447]]

development, consumer financial protection, and asset management.
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    The NCUA's 2023-2024 budget justification includes three separate 
budgets: the Operating Budget, the Capital Budget, and the National 
Credit Union Share Insurance Fund (Share Insurance Fund) Administrative 
Budget. Combined, these three budgets total $367.0 million for 2023, 
which is 3.8 percent lower than the initial 2023 funding level approved 
by the NCUA Board as part of the two-year 2022-2023 budget, and 8.1 
percent higher than the comparable level funded by the Board for 2022.
    Three significant factors, when combined, account for the majority 
of the 8.1 percent increase in the total budget between 2022 and 2023:
    1. A proposed net increase of 25 positions in permanent agency 
staffing compared to 2022, which will support critical areas necessary 
to operate as an effective federal financial regulator capable of 
addressing emerging issues. Included within these proposed new 
positions are 10 net new positions added to NCUA regional staff to 
increase the number of specialist examiners and supervisory 
specialists, four positions for the Office of Examination and Insurance 
to strengthen its credit and bank secrecy programs, two new positions 
for the Office of Consumer and Financial Protection to expand its 
consumer financial protection function, and two positions for the 
Office of Credit Union Resources and Expansion to support credit unions 
by providing technical advice about chartering and field of membership 
matters.
    2. An increase of $8.9 million for current employee compensation in 
2023 compared to 2022. This increase accounts for pay raises for the 
NCUA's employees as required by the current Collective Bargaining 
Agreement or successor agreements and expected inflationary cost 
increases for employee benefits.
    3. An increase of $5.0 million in travel funding for 2023 compared 
to 2022. The agency expects a sustained reduction in remote and offsite 
examinations during the first half of 2023 with onsite examinations and 
related travel resuming. In addition, per trip costs are expected to be 
marginally higher in 2023 based on the impact of widely-reported price 
inflation affecting lodging, airfare, and car rentals. Overall, the 
travel budget for 2023 is funded at approximately 75 percent of pre-
pandemic travel levels. The agency anticipates that travel will occur 
at a lower overall level than in previous years due to lessons learned 
during the pandemic about remote work and offsite examination and 
supervision procedures.
    Recent economic trends, including higher inflation and robust labor 
markets, have also contributed to increased costs for the NCUA to 
conduct its work without a significant degradation in agency 
capabilities or staffing levels. Staffing levels for 2023 and 2024 
reflect the agency's current staffing requirements and proposed 
staffing enhancements related to agency programs and initiatives.

Operating Budget

    The proposed 2023 Operating Budget is $350.8 million. Staffing 
levels would increase by a net 25 positions compared to the 2022 Board-
approved budget.
    The 2023 Operating Budget increases approximately $30.7 million, or 
9.6 percent, compared to the 2022 Board-approved budget. The Operating 
Budget estimate for 2024 is $388.2 million and includes 22 additional 
positions compared to the 2023 level.
    The following chart presents the major categories of spending 
supported by the 2023 budget, while specific adjustments to the 2022 
Board-approved

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budget are discussed in further detail in the following paragraphs.
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    Total Staffing. The Operating Budget includes 1,221 positions in 
2023. This is a net increase of 25 positions compared to the 2022 
levels approved by the Board. Additional staff are requested in several 
areas as discussed later in this document. Despite significant credit 
union asset growth, total NCUA staffing has remained within a 
relatively narrow range since 2017, as shown in the chart below.
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    The 2023-2024 budget reflects NCUA staffing levels as positions in 
order to simplify the presentation of current and proposed employee 
levels. The budget also makes permanent several previously authorized 
positions within the total NCUA staffing plan in order to ensure 
transparency about overall staffing levels. In past years, the NCUA 
reflected budgeted staffing levels as full-time equivalents (FTEs), 
which is a presentation that accounts for staffing vacancies, part-time 
schedules, and other variability in employee levels.

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    Pay and Benefits. Pay and benefits increase by $12.9 million in 
2023, or 5.1 percent compared to 2022, for a total of $267.3 million. 
The cost of new positions included in the 2023 budget makes up $4.0 
million of the $12.9 million increase.
    The 2023 budget recommends a net increase of 25 new positions 
compared to 2022 staffing levels. Within this total, 10 net new 
positions are added to the NCUA regional staff to increase the number 
of specialist examiners and supervisory specialists. In addition, the 
budget funds two new positions for a new Office of the Ombudsman to 
provide a resource for issues facing credit unions and other public 
stakeholders, two new positions for the Office of Consumer and 
Financial Protection to expand its consumer financial protection 
function, three positions for the Office of Examination and Insurance 
to better align the office's operating divisions and strengthen its 
credit and bank secrecy programs, one new position for the Office of 
General Counsel to support regulatory and legislative functions, one 
new position for the Office of Minority and Women Inclusion to support 
the agency's special emphasis programs, and one new position for the 
Office of the Chief Financial Officer to strengthen planning and budget 
formulation processes.
    The budget also makes permanent five positions previously 
authorized within the total NCUA staffing plan: one position for the 
Office of National Examination and Supervision to strengthen data 
modeling capabilities, two positions for the Office of Credit Union 
Resources and Expansion to support credit unions by providing technical 
advice about chartering and field of membership matters, one position 
in the Office of Examination and Insurance to strengthen analysis of 
risks within the credit union system, and one position for the Office 
of Ethics Counsel to consolidate the regional ethics program.\1\
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    \1\ The 2024 Staff Draft budget recommends an additional 22 new 
positions, including 17 regional specialists to complete the build-
out of that program, one position for the Office of the Ombudsman, 
which is proposed to be established in 2023, and making permanent 
four Office of National Examination and Supervision positions 
previously authorized within the total NCUA staffing plan.
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    Travel. The travel budget increases by $5.0 million in 2023, or 
27.5 percent compared to 2022, for a total of $23.0 million. The 
increase in travel does not represent a typical annual travel 
adjustment because the 2022 budget was lower due to restricted travel 
during the pandemic. The 2023 budget assumes that travel will return to 
approximately 75 percent of its pre-pandemic levels. The NCUA will 
continue to seek to contain travel costs by use of offsite examination 
procedures and virtual options for training when suitable for the 
desired outcomes. Additionally, the NCUA plans to hold a national 
training conference for its staff in 2023 and more internal and 
external meeting events than in 2022.
    Rent, Communications, and Utilities. The budget for rent, 
communications, and utilities increases by $1.1 million in 2023, or 
21.8 percent compared to 2022, for a budget of $6.3 million. This 
funding pays for space-related costs, telecommunications services, data 
capacity contracts, and information technology network support. The 
2023 increase is driven by the cost of a new office lease for the 
Southern Region office. The NCUA determined it would be more effective 
and offer more flexibility over the long term to sell the Southern 
Region facility and move its operations to a leased facility.
    Administrative Expenses. Administrative expenses increase by $0.6 
million in 2023, or 10.8 percent compared to 2022, for a budget of $6.7 
million. The increase to the administrative expenses budget category 
largely results from an increase in the need for supplies, materials, 
printing, and subscription expenses expected as employees return to 
onsite work in 2023.
    Contracted Services. The budget for contracted services increases 
by $11.1 million in 2023, or 30.3 percent compared to 2022, for a total 
budget of $47.6 million.\2\ About $5 million of this increase is the 
result of a lower offset for 2023 than 2022 of unspent budget amounts 
from the prior year. The remaining $6.1 million of the increase 
reflects a combination of inflationary pressures on the cost of 
contracted services and some additional initiatives described in more 
detail later in this document. Contracted services funding pays for 
products and services acquired in the commercial marketplace and 
includes critical mission support services such as information 
technology hardware and software support, accounting and auditing 
services, and specialized subject matter expertise. The majority of 
funding in the contracted services category supports the NCUA's robust 
supervision framework and includes funding for tools used to identify 
and resolve risk concerns such as interest rate risk, credit risk, and 
industry concentration risk. Further, funding within contracted 
services is used to address new and evolving operational risks such as 
cybersecurity threats.
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    \2\ The total budget for Contracted Services in 2023 before 
offsets of prior year unspent funds is estimated to be $65.6 
million.
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Capital Budget

    The proposed 2023 Capital Budget is $11.2 million.
    The 2023 Capital Budget is $1.8 million lower than the 2022 Board-
approved budget.
    The Capital Budget fully supports the NCUA's ongoing effort to 
modernize its information technology infrastructure and applications. 
The 2023 budget for capital projects decreases largely because the NCUA 
budgeted to replace its laptop computer fleet in 2022 and does not 
require additional investments for laptops in 2023. Additionally, 
funding in the Capital Budget for the MERIT examination system is lower 
in 2023 than 2022 and provides funding for routine maintenance and 
other modest system enhancements. Other information technology 
investments proposed in the 2023 Capital Budget include ongoing 
enhancements to information security, upgrades to decades-old legacy 
systems, refresh of the agency's mobile communications devices, and 
various hardware investments to refresh agency networks and ensure 
staff have the tools necessary to achieve the agency's mission.
    The Capital Budget also includes $1.5 million for NCUA's 
facilities.

Share Insurance Fund Administrative Expenses

    The proposed 2023 Share Insurance Fund Administrative Budget is 
$4.9 million.
    The 2023 Share Insurance Fund Administrative Budget is $0.1 million 
higher than the preliminary 2023 funding level approved by the Board in 
December 2021, but $1.3 million lower than the 2022 Board-approved 
budget. The Share Insurance Fund Administrative Budget funds the tools 
and technology used by the Office of National Examinations and 
Supervision (ONES) to oversee credit union-run stress testing for the 
largest credit unions, travel for state examiners attending NCUA-
sponsored training, audit support for the Share Insurance Fund's 
financial statements, and certain insurance-related expenses for Asset 
Management and Assistance Center (AMAC) operations. The decrease in the 
Share Insurance Fund Administrative Budget is primarily driven by a 
reduction to the budget for state examiner travel and the completion of 
a one-time study by AMAC that was funded in the 2022 budget.

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Additionally, the budget for the corporate resolution program continues 
to decrease in 2023 compared to 2022.

2023 Operating Budget--Use of Prior Year Surplus Funds

    The ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in lower-than-
planned spending on NCUA employee travel in 2022, as the agency largely 
continued remote and offsite examinations and work. Additionally, the 
NCUA's vacancy rate for the first half of 2022 was higher than the past 
two years, and the robust labor market has contributed to hiring 
challenges. As presented in the 2022 midsession budget update at the 
July 2022 open meeting of the NCUA Board, the NCUA estimates that the 
agency will end 2022 having underspent the Board-approved budget by 
approximately $18.0 million. The 2023 budget proposes using the $18.0 
million projected 2022 budget surplus to offset the costs of planned 
contracted services spending in 2023, reducing the agency's overall 
2023 budget by the same amount.

Budget Trends

    As shown in the following chart, the relative size of the NCUA 
budget (dotted line) has generally decreased when compared to balance 
sheets at federally insured credit unions (FICU, solid line).
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN05OC22.003

    This trend illustrates the relative spending constraint the NCUA 
has attained in the last several years relative to the size of the 
credit union system and spending by other federal financial regulators 
(dotted line compared to dashed line).

Federal Compliance Costs

    As a federal agency, the NCUA is required to devote significant 
resources to numerous activities required by federal law, regulations, 
or, in some cases, Executive Orders. These requirements drive how many 
of the agency's activities are implemented and the associated costs. 
These compliance activities affect the level of resources needed in 
areas such as information technology acquisitions and management, human 
capital processes, financial management processes and reporting, 
privacy compliance, and physical and cybersecurity programs.

Financial Management

    Federal law, regulations, and government-wide guidance promulgated 
by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the Government 
Accountability Office (GAO), and the Department of the Treasury place 
numerous requirements on federal agencies, including the NCUA, 
regarding the management of public funds. Government-wide financial 
management compliance requirements address topics such as financial 
statement audits, improper payments, prompt payments, internal 
controls, and procurement audits, enterprise risk management, strategic 
planning, and public reporting of financial and other information.

Information Technology

    There are numerous laws, regulations, and required guidance 
concerning information technology used by the federal government. Many 
of the requirements cover information technology security, such as the 
Federal Information Security Modernization Act. Other requirements 
cover records management, paperwork reduction, information technology 
acquisition, cybersecurity spending, accessible technology, and 
continuity.

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Human Capital and Equal Opportunity

    Like other federal agencies, the NCUA is subject to an array of 
human capital-related laws, regulations, and other mandatory guidance 
issued by the Office of Personnel Management, the Equal Employment 
Opportunity Commission, and OMB. Human capital compliance requirements 
include procedures related to hiring, management engagement with public 
unions and collective bargaining, employee discipline and removal 
procedures, required training for supervisors and employees, employee 
work-life and benefits programs, equal employment opportunity and 
required diversity and inclusion programs, and storage and retention of 
human resource records. The NCUA is also required by law to maintain 
comparability with other federal bank regulatory agencies when setting 
and adjusting the total amount of compensation and benefits for 
employees.

Security

    The NCUA's security posture is driven by numerous legal and 
regulatory requirements covering the full range of security functions. 
The NCUA is required to comply with mandatory requirements for 
personnel security, physical security, emergency management and 
continuity, communications and information security, and insider threat 
standards. In addition to meeting specific legislative mandates, as a 
federal agency the NCUA is required to follow guidance from, but not 
limited to, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the 
Department of Defense, the Office of Personnel Management, and the 
Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Other Compliance Activities

    The NCUA also has other general compliance activities that cut 
across numerous offices. For example, the NCUA expends resources 
complying with the Privacy Act, the Freedom of Information Act, the 
Government in the Sunshine Act, multiple laws and regulations related 
to government ethics standards, and various reporting and other 
requirements set forth by the Federal Credit Union Act and other 
statutes.
BILLING CODE 7535-01-P
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BILLING CODE 7535-01-C

II. Introduction and Strategic Context

History

    For more than 100 years, credit unions have provided financial 
services to their members. Credit unions are not-for-profit financial 
cooperatives created to serve a membership with a common bond.
    President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Federal Credit Union Act 
into law in 1934 during the Great Depression. The law's goal was to 
make credit available to Americans and promote thrift through a 
national system of nonprofit, cooperative credit unions.
    The NCUA is the independent federal agency established in 1970 by 
the U.S. Congress to regulate, charter, and supervise federal credit 
unions. With the backing of the full faith and credit of the United 
States, the NCUA operates and manages the National Credit Union Share 
Insurance Fund, insuring the deposits of the account holders in all 
federal credit unions and the vast majority of state-chartered credit 
unions.
    As of June 30, 2022, the NCUA is responsible for the regulation and 
supervision of 4,853 federally insured credit unions, which have 
approximately 132.6 million members and more than $2.1 trillion in 
assets across all states and U.S. territories.\3\
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    \3\ Source: The NCUA quarterly call report data, Q2 2022.
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Authority

    Pursuant to the Federal Credit Union Act, authority for management 
of the NCUA is vested in the NCUA Board. It is the Board's 
responsibility to determine the resources necessary to carry out the 
NCUA's responsibilities under the Act.\4\ The Board is authorized to 
expend such funds and perform such other functions or acts as it deems 
necessary or appropriate in accordance with the rules, regulations, or 
policies it establishes.\5\
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    \4\ See 12 U.S.C. 1752a(a).
    \5\ See 12 U.S.C. 1766(i)(2).
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    Upon determination of the budgeted annual expenses for the agency's 
operations, the Board determines a fee schedule to assess federal 
credit unions. The Board gives consideration to the ability of federal 
credit unions to pay such a fee and the necessity of the expenses the 
NCUA will incur in carrying out its responsibilities in connection with 
federal credit unions.\6\ In December 2020, the Board approved a final 
rule with changes to its regulation and methodology for determining the 
fees due from federal credit unions.\7\
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    \6\ See 12 U.S.C. 1755(a)-(b).
    \7\ See https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2020-12-31/pdf/2020-28490.pdf.
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    Pursuant to the law, fees collected are deposited in the agency's 
Operating Fund at the Treasury of the United States, and those fees are 
expended by the Board to defray the cost of carrying out the agency's 
operations, including the examination and supervision of federal credit 
unions.\8\ In accordance with its authority \9\ to use the Share 
Insurance Fund to carry out its insurance-related responsibilities, the 
Board approved an Overhead Transfer Rate methodology and authorized the 
Office of the Chief Financial Officer to transfer resources from the 
Share Insurance Fund to the Operating Fund to account for insurance-
related expenses.
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    \8\ See 12 U.S.C. 1755(d).
    \9\ See 12 U.S.C. 1783(a).

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Mission, Goals, and Strategy

    The staff draft budget for 2023-2024 supports the agency's second 
year implementing its 2022-2026 Strategic Plan. Throughout 2023 and 
2024, the NCUA will continue fulfilling its mission of ``protecting the 
system of cooperative credit and its member-owners through effective 
chartering, supervision, regulation, and insurance.'' The agency's 
three strategic goals are:
    1. Ensure a safe, sound, and viable system of cooperative credit 
that protects consumers.
    2. Improve the financial well-being of individuals and communities 
through access to affordable and equitable financial products and 
services.
    3. Maximize organizational performance to enable mission success.
    The NCUA's strategic plan is the foundation for the agency's 
performance management and resource allocation processes. The annual 
performance plan functions as the agency's operational plan for each 
calendar year. It outlines the annual or short-term objectives, 
strategies, and corresponding performance goals and activities that 
contribute to the accomplishment of the agency's strategic goals. The 
NCUA budget provides the resources necessary for the agency to 
implement its strategic priorities and related programs and activities, 
to identify key challenges facing the credit union industry, and to 
leverage agency strengths to help credit unions address those 
challenges.
    Appendix A provides additional information about how the budget 
aligns to the NCUA's strategic goals.

Organization and Structure

    The NCUA operates its headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia, to 
administer and oversee its major programs and support functions. The 
NCUA's AMAC is located in Austin, Texas, and is responsible for 
liquidating credit unions and managing asset management estates. The 
three regional offices and Office of National Examinations and 
Supervision carry out the agency's supervision and examination program. 
The NCUA has credit union examiners responsible for a portfolio of 
credit unions covering all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, 
Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
    The following organizational chart \10\ reflects the agency's 
currently approved structure. The staff draft budget includes a 
proposal for the Office of the Ombudsman to report directly to the 
Chairman. In addition, on January 1, 2023, AMAC will operate 
independently of the Southern Region. The map shows each region's 
geographical alignment.
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    \10\ The Board Secretary is an organizational component of the 
NCUA Board.
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BILLING CODE 7535-01-P

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BILLING CODE 7535-01-C
    The NCUA uses an extended examination cycle for well-managed, low-
risk federal credit unions with assets of less than $1 billion. 
Further, the NCUA's examiners perform streamlined examination 
procedures for financially and operationally sound credit unions with 
assets less than $50 million. The Office of National Examinations and 
Supervision examines corporate credit unions and large consumer credit 
unions with assets over $15 billion.\11\
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    \11\ Effective January 1, 2023. See https://www.ncua.gov/files/agenda-items/asset-threshold-final-rule-20220721.pdf.
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Budget Process--Strategy to Budget

    The NCUA's budget process starts with a review of the agency's 
strategic framework, including its goals and objectives. The strategic 
framework sets the agency's direction and guides resource requests, 
ensuring the agency's resources and workforce are allocated and aligned 
to agency priorities and initiatives.
    Each regional and central office director at the NCUA develops an 
initial budget request identifying the resources necessary for their 
office to support the NCUA's mission, goals, and objectives. These 
budgets are developed to ensure each office's requirements are 
individually justified and remain consistent with the agency's overall 
strategic framework.
    One of the primary inputs in the development process is a 
comprehensive workload analysis that estimates the amount of time 
necessary to conduct examinations and supervise federally insured 
credit unions in order to carry out the NCUA's dual mission as insurer 
and regulator. This analysis starts with a field-level review of every 
federally insured credit union to estimate the number of workload hours 
needed for the budget year. The workload estimates are then refined by 
regional managers and further reviewed by NCUA executive leadership for 
the annual budget proposal. The workload analysis accounts for the 
efforts of over 66 percent of the NCUA workforce and is the foundation 
for the budgets of the regional offices and ONES.
    In addition to the workload analysis, from which central office 
budget staff derive related personnel and travel cost estimates, each 
NCUA office submits estimates for fixed and recurring expenses, such as 
for employee travel, rental payments for leased property, operations 
and maintenance for owned facilities or equipment, supplies, 
telecommunications services, major capital investments, and other 
administrative and contracted services costs.
    Because information technology investments impact all offices 
within the agency, the NCUA has established an Information Technology 
Oversight Council (ITOC). The ITOC considers, analyzes, and prioritizes 
major information technology investments to ensure they are aligned 
with the NCUA's strategic framework. These focused reviews result in a 
mutually agreed-upon budget recommendation to support the NCUA's top 
short-term and long-term information technology needs and investment 
priorities.
    Once compiled for the entire agency, all office budget submissions 
undergo thorough reviews by the responsible regional and central office 
directors, the Chief Financial Officer, and the NCUA's executive 
leadership. Through a series of presentations and briefings by the 
relevant office executives, the NCUA Executive Director formulates an 
agency-wide budget recommendation for consideration by the Board.
    The NCUA Board has an ongoing commitment to transparency around the 
agency's finances and budgeting processes. As such, the Office of the 
Chief Financial Officer has made draft budgets available for public 
comment on the agency's website and solicited public comments before 
presenting final

[[Page 60456]]

budget recommendations for the Board's approval. Furthermore, Section 
212 of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection 
Act, Public Law 115-174, enacted May 24, 2018, requires that the NCUA 
``make publicly available and publish in the Federal Register a draft 
of the detailed business-type budget.'' To fulfill this requirement, 
the Board delegated to the Executive Director the authority to publish 
the draft budget before submitting it for Board approval.
    This 2023-2024 staff draft budget justification document includes 
comparisons to the Board approved 2022-2023 budget and describes the 
major spending items in each budget category to provide transparency 
and promote understanding of the use of budgeted resources. Estimates 
are provided by major budget category, office, and cost element.
    The NCUA also posts supporting documentation for its budget request 
on the NCUA website to assist the public in understanding its budget 
development process. The staff draft budget for 2023 represents the 
NCUA's projections of operating and capital costs for the year and is 
subject to approval by the Board.

Commitment to Financial Stewardship

    The NCUA funds its activities through operating fees levied on all 
federal credit unions and through reimbursements from the Share 
Insurance Fund, which is funded by both federal credit unions and 
federally insured, state-chartered credit unions. The Overhead Transfer 
Rate calculation determines the annual amount that the Share Insurance 
Fund reimburses the Operating Fund to pay for the NCUA's insurance-
related activities. At the end of each calendar year, the NCUA's 
financial transactions are subject to audit in accordance with 
Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards.\12\
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    \12\ See 12 U.S.C. 1783(b) and 1789(b).
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    The Board and the agency are committed to providing transparency 
and sound financial stewardship. In recent years, the NCUA Chief 
Financial Officer, with support and direction from the Executive 
Director and Board, has worked to improve the NCUA's financial 
management, financial reporting, and budget processes. These efforts 
have resulted in the NCUA being recognized by the Association of 
Government Accountants with a Certificate of Excellence in 
Accountability Reporting for each of its past four annual reports.
    The NCUA is the only Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and 
Enforcement Act (FIRREA) agency that publishes a detailed draft budget 
in the Federal Register and solicits public comments on it at a meeting 
with its Board and other agency leadership.
    The NCUA's 2023-2024 staff draft budget justification conforms with 
federal budgetary concepts, which increases transparency of the 
agency's planned financial activity. The NCUA first revised its 
financial presentations for such consistency in its 2018-2019 budget.
    The NCUA works diligently to maintain strong internal controls for 
financial transactions, in accordance with sound financial management 
policies and practices. Based on the results of the NCUA's assessments 
conducted through the course of 2021, the agency provided an unmodified 
Statement of Assurance (signed February 15, 2022) that its management 
had established and maintained effective controls to achieve the 
objectives of the Federal Managers Financial Integrity Act and OMB 
Circular A-123. Specifically, the NCUA supports the internal control 
objectives of reporting, operations, and compliance, as well as its 
integration with overarching risk management activities. Within the 
Office of the Chief Financial Officer, the Internal Controls Assessment 
Team continues to mature the agency-wide internal control program, 
strengthen the overall system of internal controls, promote the 
importance of identifying risk, and ensure the agency has identified 
appropriate responses to mitigate identified risks. The agency's 
internal controls are designed and operated in accordance with the 
requirements of the GAO's Standards for Internal Controls in the 
Federal Government (Green Book).

Enterprise Risk Management

    The NCUA uses an Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) program to 
evaluate various factors arising from its operations and activities 
(both internal to the agency and external in the industry) that can 
impact the agency's performance relative to its mission, vision, and 
performance outcomes. Agency priority risks include both internal 
considerations, such as the agency's control framework and information 
security posture, and external factors such as credit union 
diversification risk. All of these risks can materially impact the 
agency's ability to achieve its mission.
    The NCUA's ERM Council provides oversight of the agency's 
enterprise risk management activities. Through the ERM program, 
established in 2015, the agency is identifying, analyzing, and managing 
risks that could affect the achievement of its strategic objectives.
    Overall, the NCUA's ERM program promotes effective awareness and 
management of risks, which, when combined with robust measurement and 
communication, are central to cost-effective decision-making and risk 
optimization within the agency. This holistic evaluation of how the 
agency pursues its goals and objectives is guided by the agency's 
appetite for risk and considers resource availability or limitations. 
In addition, the agency's risk appetite helps the NCUA's employees 
align risks with opportunities when making decisions and allocating 
resources to achieve the agency's strategic goals and objectives.
    The NCUA most recently published its enterprise risk appetite 
statement in its 2022-2026 Strategic Plan.13 The enterprise 
risk appetite statement is part of the NCUA's overall management 
approach.
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    \13\ See https://www.ncua.gov/files/agenda-items/strategic-plan-20220317.pdf.
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    The NCUA recognizes that risk is unavoidable and sometimes inherent 
in carrying out the agency's mandate. The NCUA is positioned to accept 
greater risks in some areas than in others; however, the risk appetite 
establishes boundaries for the agency and its programs.

III. Key Themes of the 2023-2024 Budget

Overview

    The 2023-2024 budget includes funding for the NCUA to increase 
permanent staffing in critical areas necessary to operate as an 
effective federal financial regulator capable of addressing emerging 
issues and responding to changes in economic conditions that may impact 
the credit union system. The NCUA employees are the agency's most 
valuable resource for achieving its mission, and the agency is 
committed to a workforce with integrity, accountability, transparency, 
inclusivity, and proficiency. The agency will continue investing in its 
workforce through training and development, ensuring employees have the 
skills they need to do their work effectively.
    The 2023-2024 budget proposes investments across a range of agency 
priorities, including:
     Expanded and ongoing efforts to ensure robust 
cybersecurity in the credit union system and at the agency.
     Specialized examination staff dedicated to areas of 
emerging

[[Page 60457]]

complexity and risk in the credit union system. The 2023-2024 draft 
budget includes adding two new regional specialist programs, consumer 
compliance and bank secrecy, to the existing cadre or regional 
specialists.
     Resources for the NCUA's Advancing Communities through 
Credit, Education, Stability, and Support (ACCESS) initiative, which is 
focused on improving financial inclusion.
     Program and staff resources to provide greater assistance 
to small credit unions.
     Additional staff for continued enhancements to the NCUA's 
fair lending program.
     Increased offsite examination work and use of data 
analytics through the Virtual Examination project.
     Critical investments in new information technology systems 
and infrastructure, including enhancements to the agency's data 
reporting services and Model Examination and Risk Identification Tool 
(MERIT).
    The efficiency and effectiveness of the agency's workforce depends 
upon the availability of modern analytical tools and the resiliency of 
the NCUA's information technology systems. The NCUA is committed to 
implementing its new technology responsibly and delivering secure, 
reliable, and innovative solutions. The investments funded in the 
NCUA's Capital Budget will provide the tools and technology the 
workforce needs to achieve the NCUA mission.
    In November 2017, the NCUA Board approved funding to explore 
methods to conduct more examination work offsite--referred to as the 
Virtual Examination project. The project team continues its work to 
identify new and emerging data sources and methods to access the data, 
assessing advancements in analytical techniques, and considering how 
other technologies can be harnessed to automate or streamline various 
aspects of the examination process.
    Since March 2020, the NCUA staff have conducted the majority of 
examination work while fully offsite, with only a few exceptions for 
the most problematic and challenging cases. The Virtual Examination 
project team is building upon this work by integrating lessons learned 
during the offsite posture. These lessons will help guide near-term 
changes to examination approaches and help inform areas needing further 
development by credit unions and the NCUA.

Cybersecurity

    The NCUA's cybersecurity program focuses on two main efforts: 
supervision of credit union cybersecurity programs and protection of 
the agency's systems, assets, data, and mission capabilities. The 
combined 2023 budget for these efforts is approximately $21.3 million, 
which funds the costs of NCUA examiners and employees who carry out 
cybersecurity responsibilities, contract support for the agency's 
cybersecurity initiatives, and capital investments in cybersecurity 
tools and enhancements.
    Cyberattacks continue to pose significant risks to the financial 
system. Because of continued attacks on the nation's financial sector 
and the broader national critical infrastructure, the NCUA places 
credit union cybersecurity as a top supervisory priority and enterprise 
risk objective.
    The 2023 budget includes approximately $7.3 million for the costs 
of the NCUA's examination and support staff to administer its 
information technology and security examination program. These amounts 
include funding for the associated costs of the national program and 
policy office staff located in the Office of Examination and 
Insurance's Critical Infrastructure Division. In addition, the budget 
includes approximately $0.8 million for the costs of cybersecurity risk 
research, assessments, and information technology and security 
examination support tools.
    The NCUA engages in interagency cybersecurity preparedness as 
members of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council 
(FFIEC) and the Financial and Banking Information Infrastructure 
Committee. The NCUA monitors cyber threats identified by federal and 
non-federal sources and shares relevant information about them with the 
credit union industry and financial sector partners.
    In 2022, the NCUA piloted a new and updated information security 
examination program. The NCUA established a working group of regional 
and headquarters staff to review and incorporate changes into the 
program to be scalable to the institution's complexity and size. The 
NCUA is providing initial examiner training in the fourth quarter of 
2022 and will deploy the improved program with the 2023 examination 
cycle.
    Enhanced and continuing examiner training related to information 
security and evolving cyber risks is planned for 2023.
    To help ensure credit union cybersecurity preparedness, the NCUA 
employs highly trained regional information security officers and other 
examination staff who evaluate credit union cybersecurity programs and 
protections.
    The NCUA's approach to agency cybersecurity is based on 
requirements established by Federal statute such as the Federal 
Information Security Management and Federal Information Security 
Modernization Acts, and government-wide policy such as the National 
Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework 
(CSF), and Executive Order 14028, Improving the Nation's Cybersecurity. 
The 2023 budget includes approximately $13.2 million for the cost of 
compliance with and implementation of these requirements, of which $3.6 
million is budgeted for capital investments. It is important to note 
that many government cybersecurity requirements are not necessarily 
expected of non-governmental entities; however, as a federal agency the 
NCUA is obligated to carry them out.
    The 2023 budget invests in risk-based cybersecurity resources and 
technologies expected to enhance several of the NCUA's CSF functional 
areas and continue implementing the Executive Order through the 
following efforts:
     Implementing multi-factor authentication.
     Establishing a zero-trust architecture.
     Migrating identified databases to a secure cloud provider.
     Strengthening cyber threat and information sharing 
capabilities.
     Continuing maturity of agency-wide cybersecurity 
governance.

Support for Small Credit Unions

    Small credit unions with less than $100 million in assets and 
Minority Depository Institutions (MDIs) are uniquely positioned to 
improve financial inclusion by offering their communities access to 
credit and other services. In 2022, the NCUA implemented a Small Credit 
Union and MDI Support Program designed to support and preserve these 
credit unions. This program provides dedicated resource hours for field 
staff to conduct this important work, and the 2023 staff draft budget 
proposes additional hours for the program.
    Program assistance focuses on identifying available resources, 
providing training and guidance, and supporting credit union management 
in their efforts to address operational matters. Additional benefits of 
the program are expected to include:
     Greater awareness of the unique needs of small credit 
unions and MDIs

[[Page 60458]]

and their role serving underserved communities.
     Expanded opportunities for these credit unions to receive 
support through NCUA grants, training, and other initiatives.
     Furthering partnerships with organizations and industry 
mentors that can support small credit unions and MDIs.

Fair Lending

    Fair and equitable access to credit is vital to the credit union 
system and members of credit unions. The NCUA uses onsite examinations, 
supervision contacts, and data analysis to ensure credit unions comply 
with fair lending laws and regulations. The staff draft budget proposes 
two additional positions for 2023 to continue to enhance the NCUA's 
fair lending program. Fair lending violations continue to be uncovered, 
and the additional staff dedicated to fair lending have helped conduct 
these reviews and ensure corrective actions are implemented.

ACCESS and Financial Inclusion

    The financial services industry--of which credit unions are an 
important part--plays a key role in helping families achieve financial 
freedom by building generational wealth, helping entrepreneurs to get 
their small businesses off the ground, and helping to create jobs and 
strengthen communities. The NCUA has a role to play in making sure that 
credit unions can support overlooked or underserved areas.
    The NCUA's ACCESS initiative--Advancing Communities through Credit, 
Education, Stability, and Support--began by reviewing NCUA regulations, 
processes, and procedures to expand opportunities for greater access to 
savings, credit, and other financial services provided by credit 
unions.\14\ In 2022, the NCUA hired a dedicated ACCESS Coordinator to 
support this initiative. In addition, for the first time the ACCESS 
initiative is a part of the NCUA's 2022 annual summit focused on 
diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the credit union system. The 
summit will bring together professionals from credit unions and other 
financial inclusion industries to promote the value of DEI, share DEI 
and financial inclusion best practices, and discuss solutions to 
industry-specific challenges.
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    \14\ https://www.ncua.gov/access.
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    For 2023, the NCUA's ACCESS initiative will build on the work done 
in 2022 and continue to actively engage credit union industry leaders 
and stakeholders to identify additional ways to help new, small, low-
income-designated, and MDI credit unions to grow and prosper.

NCUA Organizational Changes

    In 2022, the NCUA Board approved two organizational changes that 
will take effect on January 1, 2023. First, the Board transferred 
responsibility for credit unions in the state of Ohio from the Eastern 
Region to the Southern Region. This transfer will help ensure that 
workloads remain generally consistent among the NCUA's three regional 
offices. Second, the Board separated the Asset Management Assistance 
Center (AMAC) from the Southern Region, reestablishing it as a distinct 
office led by the AMAC President. These changes are reflected in the 
office budget tables provided in Appendix A.
    The 2023 staff draft budget also proposes creation of a new, 
distinct Office of the Ombudsman, which will better ensure effective 
outreach and engagement with credit unions and the NCUA's external 
stakeholders, such as the general public, trade associations, and other 
regulatory agencies. Appendix A includes a separate table illustrating 
the budget recommended for the Office of the Ombudsman.

Regulatory Improvements

    The NCUA has undertaken a series of regulatory improvements in 
recent years and will continue to update and improve regulations to 
maintain a modern and effective regulatory framework. The NCUA's 
website includes additional detailed information about all proposed and 
final rules for the past several years.\15\
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    \15\ See https://www.ncua.gov/regulation-supervision/rulemakings-proposals-comment.
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    The NCUA's Annual Report includes the results of the regulatory 
reviews the agency completes on a yearly basis. The NCUA's current 
performance target for regulatory review is to review one-third of the 
agency's regulations annually.

IV. Operating Budget

Overview

    The NCUA Operating Budget is the annual plan for resources required 
for the agency to conduct activities prescribed by the Federal Credit 
Union Act. These activities include: (1) chartering new federal credit 
unions; (2) approving field of membership applications of federal 
credit unions; (3) promulgating regulations and providing guidance; (4) 
performing regulatory compliance and safety and soundness examinations; 
(5) implementing and administering enforcement actions, such as 
prohibition orders, orders to cease and desist, orders of 
conservatorship and orders of liquidation; and (6) administering the 
National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund.

Staffing

    The staffing levels proposed for 2023 reflect the resource 
requirements that support the NCUA's continued efforts to improve the 
examination process and enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the 
supervisory process. The 2023-2024 budget includes funding for the NCUA 
to increase permanent staffing in critical areas necessary to operate 
as an effective federal financial regulator capable of addressing 
emerging issues.
    The 2023 budget supports a total agency staffing level of 1,221 
positions.\16\ This is a net increase of 25 positions, or 2.0 percent, 
compared to the agency's 2022 staffing level.
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    \16\ Does not include five positions assigned to the Central 
Liquidity Facility in 2023.
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    The proposed changes for the 2023 staffing level include:
     Increasing the NCUA regional staff by 10 net new 
positions, which includes adding 20 new specialist examiner positions 
and reducing 10 general examiner positions.
     Adding two positions to establish a new Office of the 
Ombudsman with dedicated staff and resources to facilitate better 
stakeholder understanding of NCUA's processes and more effective 
resolution of issues.
     Increasing by two positions the Office of Consumer 
Financial Protection to support the consumer financial protection 
program.
     Increasing by four positions the Office of Examination and 
Insurance to support an effective exam and supervision program, and 
management of the Share Insurance Fund.
     Adding one new position in the Office of Minority and 
Women Inclusion to support its mission of promoting diversity, equity, 
inclusion, and accessibility.
     Adding one new position in the Office of the Chief 
Financial Officer to support its performance and risk analysis program 
and improve budget formulation and analytic processes.
     Making permanent five positions previously authorized 
within the total NCUA staffing plan.
    The new 2023 positions are described in greater detail in the 
following paragraphs, while the chart illustrates the NCUA's staffing 
levels in recent years.\17\
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    \17\ The 2023-2024 budget reflects NCUA staffing levels as 
positions in order to simplify the presentation of current and 
proposed employee levels. In past years, the NCUA reflected budgeted 
staffing levels as FTEs, which is a presentation that accounts for 
vacant positions, part-time work, and other variability in employee 
levels. Although the actual number of persons employed at the NCUA 
varies throughout the year, using the count of positions is simpler.

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[[Page 60459]]

[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN05OC22.008

Request for New Staff in 2023: +25 Positions (Net)

    The budget includes funding for 25 net new positions in 2023, as 
detailed below:

Regional Specialist Examiners +10 Net Positions

    The number of large, complex credit unions continues to increase 
through mergers and membership growth, which necessitates the need for 
a broader array of experts in the field to support the examination and 
supervision of these institutions. Two new specialist programs are 
needed, regional consumer compliance specialists and regional bank 
secrecy specialists. In addition, supervisory specialists are needed to 
manage the broader array of regional specialists. In total, the draft 
budget proposes 20 new related positions for 2023: eight new regional 
consumer compliance specialists, six new regional bank secrecy 
specialists, and six new supervisory specialists. As described later in 
this section, these new specialists positions will be offset by a 
reduction of 10 general examiner positions, reflecting the 
contributions that specialists make to the examination process.

Office of the Ombudsman +2 Positions

    The 2023 budget proposes a new Office of the Ombudsman led by the 
Ombudsman. The Office of the Ombudsman will be responsible for outreach 
to credit unions and stakeholders, responding to inquiries and 
complaints from the public, and reviewing concerns raised by external 
parties. The office will also conduct training for NCUA staff, produce 
an annual report, provide feedback to the NCUA Board, and serve as a 
visible resource to credit union stakeholders and the public. As 
described in additional detail later in this section, the current 
Associate Ombudsman position will be reallocated to the new office from 
the Office of the Executive Director.

Fair Lending Analysts, Office of Consumer Financial Protection +2 
Positions

    These two new positions will continue to enhance the NCUA's fair 
lending function. The additional staff will focus on leading and 
performing fair lending examinations and supervision contacts and 
ensuring corrective action when required. They will also serve as 
technical advisors and a resource for the regions on fair lending and 
other consumer financial protection laws and regulations affecting 
credit unions. Additionally, these positions will participate on and 
support FFIEC subcommittees as well as other interagency and internal 
working groups.

Associate Director, Office of Examination and Insurance (E&I) +1 
Position

    This new position will enable a more equitable and logical 
alignment of the divisions within E&I. By distributing responsibilities 
for the office's divisions and its interagency working groups between 
the Associate Directors, the

[[Page 60460]]

Deputy Director for E&I will focus on delivering strategic program 
outcomes and be better positioned to support the Director. The more 
balanced alignment of divisions will also better equip Associate 
Directors to lead the office's operations, particularly in those areas 
with organizational changes or new management.

Senior Credit Specialist, Office of Examination and Insurance +1 
Position

    This new position will help address updates to policymaking, 
rulemaking, and training materials required for new and emerging issues 
in credit markets. In addition, this specialist will develop new 
research, analytics, and reporting deliverables focused on credit risk 
so the NCUA can meet its objective of measuring, monitoring, and 
mitigating credit concentration and other risks in the credit union 
system.

Supervisory Bank Secrecy Officer, Office of Examination and Insurance 
+1 Position

    This new position will ensure E&I can meet the increased workload 
demands that result from the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020, fulfill 
training obligations, and comply with statutory requirements under the 
Anti-Money Laundering Act. The Supervisory Bank Secrecy Officer will 
also support the work required for interagency Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) 
workgroups, maintain and update NCUA's BSA program, and develop and 
provide examiner training about BSA matters.

Attorney Advisor, Office of General Counsel +1 Position

    This new position will support the Regulations and Legislation 
division in the Office of General Counsel, which is responsible for 
legislative review and analysis, rulemaking and other regulatory 
activities, and interpretative analysis of existing NCUA regulations. 
The NCUA's schedule for reviewing all of its regulations results in a 
significant and growing workload, and this new position will help 
ensure the agency can sustain an effective and responsive regulatory 
program.

Senior Diversity and Equity Specialist, Office of Minority and Women 
Inclusion (OMWI) +1 Position

    This new position will support OMWI's ongoing efforts to promote 
diversity, equity, and inclusion by managing the agency's special 
emphasis programs. This responsibility will include implementing, 
monitoring, and reporting on solutions identified in barrier analysis 
findings, coordinating OMWI activities in partnerships with the Office 
of Human Resources, developing OMWI policies, and advising OMWI 
management.

Budget and Management Analyst, Office of the Chief Financial Officer +1 
Position

    This new position will support efforts to improve and mature the 
NCUA's performance and risk analysis programs and its budgetary 
formulation and analytic processes. The position will be responsible 
for planning and analytic activities for both performance and budgetary 
deliverables, allowing the Office of the Chief Financial Officer to 
establish more engaged and responsive relationships with the NCUA's 
offices and programs.

Additional Permanent Adjustments to Authorized Staffing, Various 
Offices +5 Positions

    In addition to the new positions proposed for 2023, the budget also 
includes resources to make the following permanent adjustments to the 
agency's staffing:
     Office of National Examinations and Supervision: one 
Senior Data Scientist position to continue the NCUA improvements to its 
supervisory stress testing models, strengthen its data-driven 
supervision approaches, and expand its risk analyses of ONES credit 
unions;
     Office of Credit Union Resources and Expansion: two 
Consumer Access Analyst positions to support credit unions with 
technical advice on field of membership policies and other questions 
related to share insurance, bylaws, and credit union membership.
     Office of Examination and Insurance: one position to 
strengthen analysis of risks within the credit union system as a whole 
and increase cross-training, rotation coverage, and allow for improved 
succession planning for potential retirements.
     Office of Ethics Counsel: one position to support 
consolidation of the regional ethics program.

Staff Realignments for Organizational Changes

    The office position counts shown in the 2023 budget also reflect 
several organizational changes, as described below. These staff 
realignments do not alter the total position count for the agency.
     The Eastern Region will realign 19 existing positions to 
the Southern Region to support the transfer of examination and 
supervision responsibility for credit unions in the state of Ohio to 
the Southern Region.
     The Southern Region will realign 22 existing positions to 
a separate AMAC Office.
     The Office of the Executive Director will realign one 
existing position to the new Office of the Ombudsman.
    Like any government agency, the NCUA manages its changing workload 
within its overall authorized budgetary and staff resource levels. The 
NCUA Board delegated to the Executive Director the authority to adjust 
staffing within total allocated resources to best respond to changing 
agency priorities and trends within the credit union system. The 
Executive Director must maintain total NCUA staffing at or below the 
resource levels approved within the budget, and promptly inform the 
Board of any significant changes to the agency's staffing allocations 
within the approved resource totals.

Special Surge Workforce

    In 2021, the NCUA Board approved temporary COVID-19 hiring 
authority to respond to uncertainties in the credit union system by 
hiring and retaining for a term appointment, without a reduction to 
their federal annuity, individuals who have retired from federal 
service into a position classified in the Credit Union Examiner 0580 
occupational series. The Board extended this authority through 2024, 
allowing those hired under the authority to serve for a maximum of four 
years. In addition, the National Defense Authorization Act, 5 U.S.C. 
8344(l)(7), grants authority for the NCUA to hire retired annuitants on 
a part-time basis through December 31, 2024.
    When combined, these authorities allow the NCUA to add staff who 
are already trained and have experience examining depository financial 
institutions so as to be better prepared to respond to any elevated 
levels of problem institutions that occur in 2023 and 2024. The agency 
anticipates hiring no more than 30 individuals using these temporary 
authorities and plans to fund these positions in 2023 by using unspent 
Operating Budget funds available from vacancies elsewhere in the 
organization.

Budget Category Descriptions and Major Changes

    There are five major expenditure categories in the NCUA budget. 
This section explains how these expenditures support the NCUA's 
operations and presents a transparent overview of the Operating Budget.

[[Page 60461]]

[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN05OC22.009

    Actual expenses for the Operating Fund are reported monthly in the 
Operating Fund Financial Highlights posted on the NCUA website. Share 
Insurance Fund financial reports and statements, which are also posted 
to the NCUA website, detail reimbursements made to the Operating Fund.

Salaries and Benefits

    The budget includes $267.3 million for employee salaries and 
benefits in 2023. This change is a $12.9 million, or 5.1 percent, 
increase from the 2022 Board-approved budget. Salaries and benefits 
costs make up approximately 76 percent of the annual NCUA operating 
budget. There are three primary drivers of increased costs in 2023 for 
the salaries and benefits category:
     Merit and locality pay increases for the NCUA's employees 
are paid in accordance with the agency's current Collective Bargaining 
Agreement (CBA) and its merit-based pay system.
     Contributions for employee retirement to the Federal 
Employee Retirement System (FERS), which are set by the Office of 
Personnel Management and cannot be negotiated or changed by the NCUA. 
The mandatory FERS contribution rate increases total NCUA benefits 
costs by 2.6 percent in 2023 compared to 2022.
     Contributions for employee health insurance are also set 
by the Office of Personnel Management and cannot be negotiated or 
changed by the NCUA. The mandatory contribution increases total NCUA 
benefits costs by 5.5 percent in 2023 compared to 2022.
    In 2023, the NCUA's compensation levels will continue to ``maintain 
comparability with other federal bank regulatory agencies'' as required 
by the Federal Credit Union Act.\18\ The salaries

[[Page 60462]]

and benefits budget includes all employee pay raises for 2023, such as 
merit and locality increases, and those for promotions, reassignments, 
and other changes, as described below.
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    \18\ The Federal Credit Union Act states that, ``In setting and 
adjusting the total amount of compensation and benefits for 
employees of the Board, the Board shall seek to maintain 
comparability with other federal bank regulatory agencies.'' See 12 
U.S.C. 1766(j)(2).
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    Consistent with other federal pay systems, the NCUA's compensation 
includes base pay and locality pay components. Under the current CBA, 
staff will be eligible to receive an average merit-based increase of 
3.0 percent, and an additional locality adjustment ranging from 1.0 
percent to 3.0 percent, depending on the geographic location. The 
salaries and benefits budget also accounts for potential increases 
associated with a new CBA being negotiated.
    The first-year cost of the 25 net new positions added in 2023 is 
estimated to be $4.0 million. Specific increases to individual offices' 
salaries and benefits budgets will vary based on current pay levels, 
position changes, and promotions.
    Personnel compensation at the NCUA varies across every office and 
region depending on work experience, skills, years of service, 
supervisory or non-supervisory responsibilities, and geographic 
locations. More than 85 percent of the NCUA workforce has earned a 
bachelor's degree or higher, compared to approximately 35 percent of 
the private-sector workforce. Attracting a well-qualified workforce 
requires the agency to pay competitive salaries.
    The Office of Personnel Management's assumptions for actuarial 
valuation of FERS remain unchanged in 2023, but remain a significant 
cost driver for the agency's salaries and benefits growth. Because the 
NCUA must contribute 18.4 percent of employee salaries to the 
retirement fund in 2023, the estimated impact on the NCUA budget is an 
increase of approximately $818,000 in mandatory payments, or 
approximately 6.0 percent of the salary and benefits growth compared to 
2022 levels.
    The average health insurance costs for the Federal Employees Health 
Benefits (FEHBP) program for 2023 are consistent with historical actual 
expenses. The annual Office of Personnel Management estimate for the 
2023 government share of FEHBP premiums is expected to be released in 
October 2022, and the budget will be updated if there is any material 
change to estimated FEHBP costs. The employee salary and benefits 
category also includes costs associated with other mandatory employer 
contributions such as Social Security, Medicare, transportation 
subsidies, unemployment, and workers' compensation.
    In past years, the NCUA adjusted its budget downward by an expected 
vacancy rate for positions because of a time lag between employee 
separations and hiring new staff. The NCUA continues to closely monitor 
the hiring and attrition trends within its workforce. In anticipation 
of the need for a full complement of staff in 2023, and because of 
ongoing efforts to accelerate the agency's hiring time, the 2023 budget 
does not include a vacancy adjustment.
    The 2024 budget request for salaries and benefits is estimated at 
$285.7 million, an $18.5 million increase from the 2023 level. Included 
within this total is the full-year cost impact of new positions 
proposed for 2023 (approximately $5.3 million), $1.4 million for 17 
additional regional specialists positions expected for 2024, $1.0 
million to convert four existing ONES analyst positions to permanent 
staff positions, $125,000 for an additional Ombudsman position, merit 
and locality pay increases consistent with the CBA (approximately $7.4 
million), and associated increases in benefits for all employees 
(approximately $3.3 million).

Travel

    The 2023 budget includes $23.0 million for travel. This change is a 
$5.0 million, or 27.5 percent, increase to the 2022 Board-approved 
budget.
    There are three primary reasons for the significant travel budget 
increase compared to the 2022 levels. First, the 2022 travel budget of 
$18.1 million was lower than historic travel spending levels because of 
the agency's budgeting assumption that pandemic-related travel 
restrictions would continue for part of 2022. Therefore, comparisons 
between 2022 and 2023 travel levels are not representative of typical 
annual travel adjustments.
    Second, the NCUA expects the agency's staff will travel at a rate 
of approximately 75 percent of pre-pandemic levels in the upcoming 
year. Additionally, although fewer trips and events are planned, per 
trip costs are expected to be marginally higher based on the impact of 
widely-reported price inflation affecting lodging, airfare, and car 
rentals.
    Finally, the NCUA plans to hold a national training conference for 
all NCUA staff in 2023 to support professional development and employee 
engagement. Each NCUA office has budgeted the expected travel-related 
costs.
    The travel cost category includes expenses for employees' airfare, 
lodging, meals, auto rentals, reimbursements for privately owned 
vehicle usage, and other travel-related expenses. These are necessary 
expenses for examiners' onsite work in credit unions. Close to two-
thirds of the NCUA's workforce is comprised of field staff who spend 
part of their time traveling to conduct the examination and supervision 
program.
    During the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency and its employees 
successfully transitioned to an offsite examination posture, developing 
new procedures and processes to continue examination and supervisory 
work. In 2023, the NCUA will continue to evaluate how it can conduct 
portions of examinations offsite, which should help constrain the 
growth of future travel budgets.
    The NCUA staff also travel for routine and specialized training. In 
2023, the NCUA expects its staff will attend a combination of in-person 
and virtual training to help reduce travel expenses.
    The 2024 budget request for travel is estimated to be $22.9 
million, or a 0.8 percent decrease compared to the 2023 level. This 
budget level reflects an expectation for modest travel-related cost 
inflation offset by a reduction to the 2024 travel budget for the 
national training conference planned for 2023.

Rent, Communications, and Utilities

    The 2023 budget includes $6.3 million for rent, communications, and 
utilities. This is a $1.1 million increase, or 21.8 percent more than 
the 2022 Board-approved budget. The rent, communications, and utilities 
budget funds the agency's telecommunications and information technology 
network expenses and facility rental costs.
    Telecommunication charges include leased data lines, domestic and 
international voice (including mobile), and other network charges. 
Telecommunication costs also include the circuits and any associated 
usage fees for providing voice or data telecommunications service 
between data centers, office locations, the internet, and any customer, 
supplier, or partner.
    The primary increase to the 2023 rent, communications, and 
utilities budget is for a new office lease for the Southern Region 
office. After a condition assessment of the NCUA-owned building in 
Austin and an analysis of the area's commercial real estate market, the 
NCUA determined it would be more effective and offer more flexibility 
over the long term to move its operations to a leased facility. The 
NCUA Board will make a final determination about the

[[Page 60463]]

future real estate plan for the Southern Region office.
    The rent, communications, and utilities budget category also 
includes the cost of the office utilities, meeting space rental for 
offsite events, postage expenses, and the office building lease for the 
Western Region, which is approximately $500,000 in 2023. The annual 
utility costs for the headquarters and regional offices are estimated 
at $461,000 for 2023.
    The 2023 budget also includes approximately $1.0 million for 
examiner group meetings, credit union examiner training events, and 
event space and equipment rental costs for the national training 
conference.
    The 2024 budget request for the rent, communications, and utilities 
category is estimated to be $6.0 million, or a 4.1 percent decrease 
compared to 2023. The $260,000 decrease is primarily due to a reduction 
in the 2024 budget for the national training conference to be held in 
2023.

Administrative Expenses

    The 2023 budget includes $6.7 million for administrative expenses. 
This is an increase of $647,000, or 10.8 percent, compared to the 2022 
Board-approved budget. Recurring costs in the administrative expenses 
category include the annual reimbursement to the FFIEC, employee 
relocation expenses, recruitment and advertising expenses, shipping, 
printing, subscriptions, examiner training and meeting supplies, office 
furniture, and employee supplies and materials.
    As part of the FFIEC, the NCUA shares in costs for certain joint 
actions and services that affect the financial services industry. The 
staff draft budget will be updated for the final FFIEC budget estimate 
if it is available at the time the final budget is prepared.
    The 2023 budget includes $1.3 million for employee relocations, an 
increase of $250,000 compared to the 2022 budget. Relocation costs are 
paid by the NCUA to employees who are competitively selected for a 
promotion or new job within the agency in a different geographic area 
than where they live.
    The 2024 budget request for administrative services is estimated to 
be $6.5 million, or a 2.9 percent decrease primarily due to a reduction 
in the 2024 budget for the national training conference to be held in 
2023.

Contracted Services

    The 2023 budget includes $47.6 million for contracted services. 
This is an $11.1 million increase, or 30.3 percent, compared to the 
2022 Board-approved budget. Similar to 2022, $18.0 million of unspent 
budget amounts from prior years will be used to pay for 2023 contracted 
services expenses. Therefore, the total planned amount for contracted 
services in 2022 is approximately $65.6 million.
    The contracted services budget category includes the agency's costs 
incurred when products and services are acquired in the commercial 
marketplace. Acquiring specific expertise or services from contract 
providers is often the most cost-effective way for the NCUA to 
accomplish its mission. Such services include critical mission support 
such as information technology equipment and software development, 
accounting and auditing services, and specialized subject matter 
expertise that enable staff to focus on executing core mission 
requirements.
    The majority of funding in the contracted services category 
supports the NCUA's robust supervision framework and includes funding 
for tools used to identify and resolve risk concerns such as interest 
rate risk, credit risk, and industry concentration risk, as well as by 
addressing new and evolving operational risks such as cybersecurity 
threats. Growth in the contracted services budget category results 
primarily from new operations and maintenance costs associated with 
capital investments, such as the Examination and Supervision Solution 
system commonly known as MERIT. Other costs include core agency 
business operation systems such as accounting and payroll processing, 
and various recurring costs, as described in the following seven major 
categories:

 Information Technology Operations and Maintenance (53.2 
percent of contracted services)

    [cir] Information technology network support services and help desk 
support
    [cir] Contractor program and web support and network and equipment 
maintenance services
    [cir] Administration of software products such as Microsoft Office, 
SharePoint, and audio-visual services

 Administrative Support and Other Services (14.2 percent of 
contracted services)

    [cir] Examination and supervision program support
    [cir] Technical support for examination and cybersecurity training 
programs
    [cir] Equipment maintenance services
    [cir] Legal services and other expert consulting support
    [cir] Other administrative mission support services for the NCUA 
central office

 Accounting, Procurement, Payroll, and Human Resources Systems 
(7.9 percent of contracted services)
    [cir] Accounting and procurement systems and support
    [cir] Human resources, payroll, and employee services
    [cir] Equal employment opportunity and diversity programs

 Building Operations, Maintenance, and Security (6.7 percent of 
contracted services)

    [cir] Headquarters facility operations and maintenance
    [cir] Building security and continuity programs
    [cir] Personnel security and administrative programs

 Information Technology Security (9.6 percent of contracted 
services)

    [cir] Enhanced secure data storage and operations
    [cir] Information security programs
    [cir] Security system assessment services

 Training (5.3 percent of contracted services)

    [cir] Examiner staff, technical and specialized training and 
development
    [cir] Senior executive and mission support staff professional 
development

 Audit and Financial Management Support (3.2 percent of 
contracted services)

    [cir] Annual audit support services
    [cir] Material loss reviews
    [cir] Investigation support services
    [cir] Financial management support services
    The following pie chart illustrates the breakout of the seven 
categories for the total 2023 contracted services budget of $65.6 
million, of which $18.0 million is funded from prior year available 
balances.

[[Page 60464]]

[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN05OC22.010

    Major programs within the contracted services category include:
     Training requirements for the examiner workforce. The 
NCUA's most important resource is its highly educated, experienced, and 
skilled workforce. It is important that staff have the proper 
knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform assigned duties and meet 
emerging needs. Each year, examiners complete a wide range of training 
classes to ensure their skills and industry knowledge are kept up to 
date, including in core areas such as capital markets, consumer 
compliance, and specialized lending. Major training deliverables for 
2023 include classes offered by the FFIEC, professional development 
training at the national training conference, and updated examiner 
training courses. As part of lessons learned from managing training 
requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic, the NCUA is controlling 
training costs with a blended schedule of both in-person and virtual 
sessions.
    Contracted service providers, in partnership with the NCUA subject 
matter experts, will develop and design training classes for examiners 
and continue the ongoing review of the NCUA's examiner course 
curriculum. In addition, the NCUA will partner with the Office of 
Personnel Management to develop and certify principal examiner 
assessments that reflect current regulations and examination processes. 
The NCUA's Talent Management System will continue to be updated to 
include a Career Resource Center. Additionally, contracted service 
providers and central office staff will continue providing 
organizational development, leadership development programs, and 
teambuilding training.
     Information security program. This NCUA program supports 
ongoing efforts to strengthen the agency's cybersecurity and ensure its 
compliance with the Federal Information Security Modernization Act and 
other standards for federal agencies.
     Agency financial management services, human resources 
technology support, and payroll services. The NCUA contracts for these 
back-office support services with the U.S. Department of 
Transportation's Enterprise Service Center (DOT/ESC) and the General 
Services Administration. The NCUA's human resource system, HR Links, 
also adopted by other federal agencies, is a shared solution that 
automates routine human resource tasks and improves time and attendance 
functionality.
     Audit. The NCUA Office of Inspector General contracts with 
an accounting firm to conduct the annual audit of the agency's four 
permanent funds. The results of these audits are posted annually on the 
NCUA website and are included as part of the agency's Annual Report.
    A significant share of the budget for contracted services finances 
ongoing information technology infrastructure support for the agency. 
The 2023 budget includes the third year of funding for operations and 
maintenance of the MERIT system, which replaced the legacy AIRES 
examination system in 2021. Several other of the NCUA's core 
information technology systems and processes also require additional 
contract support in 2023, which results in increase costs for 
contracted services, as described below.
    Within the budget for the Office of Chief Information Officer 
(OCIO), an additional $2.7 million compared to the 2022 budget level is 
required for:
     Information technology infrastructure services and 
operations and maintenance labor support for the new MERIT system and 
NCUA legacy systems.
     Application tools that support the new MERIT system and 
other mission critical and business applications.
     Cybersecurity capabilities and implementing the provisions 
of Executive Order 14028, Improving the Nation's Cybersecurity.
    Within the Office of the Executive Director, the contracted 
services budget increases by $500,000 compared to the 2022 budget level 
for support of the ongoing work on the Virtual Examination project.
    Within the Office of Human Resources, contracted services increase 
by $802,000 compared to the 2022 budget level, primarily for the 
national

[[Page 60465]]

training conference, program support for human resource capital and 
workforce programs, including enhanced recruitment efforts, and other 
training support and management systems.
    The Office of Minority and Women Inclusion's contract budget 
increases by $117,000 compared to the 2022 budget level. These funds 
will help OMWI achieve the goals established in the agency's Diversity 
and Inclusion Strategic Plan to promote diversity and inclusion within 
the agency and the credit union industry and ensure equal opportunity 
in accordance with the mandates of Section 342 of the Dodd-Frank Act. 
OMWI expects to host an in-person Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion 
Summit in 2023 to bring together credit union professionals to promote 
the value of diversity, equity, and inclusion for credit unions; share 
best diversity, equity, and inclusion practices; and develop solutions 
to industry-specific challenges in this arena.
    Within the Office of Ethics Counsel, contracted services increase 
by $65,000 compared to the 2022 budget level. The increase will support 
the competitive solicitation and initial start-up costs for a financial 
disclosure reporting system. The NCUA is required to comply with this 
annual federal ethics reporting requirement.
    Within the Office of Business Innovation, contracted services 
increase by $316,000 compared to the 2022 budget level. These funds 
will provide contract support for the agency's information system 
security processes and fund a third-party-administered survey about 
credit unions' examination experiences.
    Within the Office of Continuity and Security Management, contracted 
services increase by $153,000 compared to the 2022 budget level. The 
increase is primarily associated with operations and maintenance of the 
physical access control system for the NCUA's facilities and the 
increased costs of secure communications systems compliance with new 
federal standards.
    Within the Office of Consumer Financial Protection, contracted 
services increase by $289,000 compared to the 2022 budget level. The 
increase is primarily associated with a review and analysis of 
MyCreditUnion.gov to evaluate future plans for the consumer website and 
its financial literacy and outreach programs.
    Within the Office of Examination and Insurance, contracted services 
increase by $467,000 compared to the 2022 budget level. These funds 
will be used primarily for Automated Cybersecurity Evaluation Toolbox 
enhancements, cybersecurity research and advisory services, and expert 
support to help automate internal manual processes.
    Within the Office of the Chief Financial Officer, 2023 contracted 
services increase $646,000 compared to the 2022 budget level. The 
increases include annual accounting and procurement support provided by 
the Department of Transportation, Enterprise Service Center, project 
management support to assist with the agency transition to a new budget 
system, financial audit support services inflationary growth, 
competitive solicitation and award of a new travel reimbursement 
support contract, and a consolidated janitorial and maintenance 
contract for the headquarters and the Southern Region facilities.
    Contracted services spending for 2024 is estimated at $67.1 
million. Excluding the $18.0 million carryover in 2023, this is a net 
increase of $1.6 million, or approximately 2.4 percent. The net 
increase of $1.6 million supports $1.1 million for operations and 
maintenance costs for newly transitioned capital projects, $400,000 for 
a planned NCUA leadership conference, and $150,000 to support the new 
Ombudsman office.

V. Capital Budget

Overview

    Annually, the NCUA carries out a rigorous review process to 
identify the agency's needs for information technology, facility 
improvements and repairs, and other multi-year capital investments. The 
NCUA staff review the agency's inventory of owned facilities, 
equipment, information technology systems, and information technology 
hardware to determine what requires repair, major renovation, or 
replacement. The staff then make recommendations for prioritized 
investments to the NCUA Board.
    The NCUA's 2023 capital budget is $11.2 million. The capital budget 
funds the NCUA's long-term investments. The 2023 capital budget 
provides $10.8 million for information technology development projects 
and investments. The NCUA facilities require $472,000 for central 
office building minor construction and maintenance projects.
    Information technology systems and hardware require significant 
capital expenditures for modern organizations. The 2023 budget 
continues the NCUA's multi-year investment in current and replacement 
information technology systems and hardware. The budget fully supports 
the NCUA's effort to modernize its information technology 
infrastructure and applications through the Information Technology 
Infrastructure, Platform and Security Refresh project and makes 
investments to improve the agency's management and analysis of data 
through the Data Reporting Solution project and the Enterprise Data 
Program. The budget also continues investment in the agency's new MERIT 
examination system. In addition, several other capital investment 
projects will help ensure the agency's cybersecurity posture complies 
with Executive Order 14028 and improve quality controls for application 
development projects.
    Routine repairs and lifecycle-driven property renovations are also 
necessary to properly maintain investments in the NCUA-owned 
properties. The NCUA assesses the agency's properties to determine the 
need for essential repairs, replacement of building systems that have 
reached the end of their engineered lives, or renovations required to 
support changes in the agency's organizational structure or address 
revisions to building standards and codes. In 2022, the NCUA reached 
the conclusion of several years of space consolidation and major 
renovation at its Alexandria headquarters. The 2023 budget funds 
maintenance requirements for the agency's headquarters.

[[Page 60466]]

[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN05OC22.011

    Detailed descriptions of all 2023 capital projects, including a 
discussion of how each project helps the agency achieve its goals and 
objectives, are provided in Appendix B.

Summary of Capital Projects

Executive Order on Improving the Nation's Cybersecurity ($3.1 Million)
    The purpose of this capital investment is to ensure the NCUA 
complies with Executive Order 14028, Improving the Nation's 
Cybersecurity. The project will enable the appropriate applications to 
use multi-factor authentication, implement a zero-trust architecture 
for the NCUA's infrastructure and applications, and shift compute and 
storage resources to a cloud service provider.

Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation ($0.5 Million)

    The objective of this project is to enhance the overall security 
posture of the NCUA with expanded capabilities to monitor 
vulnerabilities and threats in near real-time. This is achieved by 
implementing capabilities and technical controls to identify what is on 
the network, who is on the network, what is happening on the network, 
and to protect data in use, transit, and at rest. This increased 
situational awareness will allow the NCUA to prioritize actions to 
mitigate or accept cybersecurity risks based on the potential impact to 
the NCUA's mission.

Information Technology Infrastructure, Platform and Security Refresh 
($3.1 Million)

    The purpose of this project is to replace outdated or end-of-life 
network and platform hardware, as well as to prepare the NCUA for cloud 
computing adoption. This investment helps ensure business continuity 
and efficient operations by improving system availability and 
stability. Projects for 2023 include refreshing hardware and software 
and acquiring the professional services required to migrate and harden 
information technology systems for production readiness.

Examination and Supervision Solution and Infrastructure Hosting ($0.7 
Million)

    In 2021, the NCUA deployed the NCUA Connect and MERIT systems to 
NCUA staff, state supervisory authorities, and credit unions. In 2022, 
MERIT officially replaced AIRES for all NCUA examination and 
supervision contacts. After a year of use by staff, additional 
opportunities for enhancing MERIT's functionality and performance have 
been identified and the NCUA remains committed to delivering tools that 
maximize efficiency and generate the best results possible.
    In 2023, the NCUA will make additional MERIT data available to 
staff to enhance field operations and enable future self-service 
reporting. Additionally, 2023 capital investments will be used to 
transition the legacy state supervisory authority Partner Gateway to 
NCUA Connect, eliminating service duplication and streamlining state 
supervisory authority access to NCUA systems while enhancing and 
expanding security controls to meet FedRamp standards.

Data Reporting Solution (DRS) ($0.8 Million)

    DRS is focused on implementing a business intelligence (BI) 
solution for enhanced data access, integrity, analytics, and reporting. 
The Enterprise Data Program provides leadership on business and 
governance process needs for DRS. DRS' data-related investments 
iteratively build towards the objective of integrating our legacy 
enterprise data and new MERIT data into structures that can be 
leveraged by the business for self-service development of reporting and 
analytic work products. The NCUA's 2020 data maturity assessment 
confirmed the need for improved access and functionality in using data, 
with a strong desire for a common self-service business intelligence 
capability for efficient and effective use by staff. DRS will provide a 
modern self-service business intelligence tool for the enterprise, as 
well as access to data to enable staff to utilize the tool efficiently 
and effectively.

Enterprise Data Program ($0.4 Million)

    The purpose of this project is the centralization, organization, 
and storage of the NCUA's data. The primary goal is to enable the NCUA 
to manage enterprise data as a strategic asset through its full 
lifecycle. The program focus is to improve the agency's effectiveness 
by maturing data management practices to ensure the use of high-quality 
data in operations, reporting, and analytics. This is a highly 
collaborative effort to facilitate alignment across offices and 
performance of data-related work. Additionally, the Enterprise Data 
Program provides the overall business leadership and strategic 
direction for the DRS.

Consumer Access Process and Reporting Information System (CAPRIS) ($0.4 
Million)

    CAPRIS is the application that certain credit unions use to request 
changes to their field of membership. CAPRIS replaced the legacy 
GENISIS and FOMIA systems. The 2023 budget includes funds for 
improvements to the CAPRIS system that will allow the NCUA to process 
all occupational and associational common bond groups, regardless of 
potential membership size. Currently, credit unions that request 
changes to their field of membership exceeding 3,000 individuals must 
use paper-based forms, and NCUA staff reviews and processes these 
requests manually.

Mobile Device Refresh ($1.0 Million)

    This project will replace the outdated or out of support mobile 
devices currently used by the NCUA's staff. The new mobile devices will 
be more secure and compatible with current technologies.

Enhanced Testing Capability ($0.3 Million)

    The purpose of this investment is to improve the quality of the 
NCUA's applications and to meet the needs of a growing application 
portfolio. The NCUA's applications are developed and

[[Page 60467]]

maintained in accordance with the approved software development 
lifecycle and undergo a quality assurance review to ensure end products 
meet functional, performance, and security standards. This project will 
develop and execute additional test cases for complex and critical 
applications in order to strengthen quality assurance reviews.
Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) Testing Team ($0.5 
Million)
    The purpose of this investment is to improve the quality of the 
NCUA's applications. A separately funded team of IV&V testers will 
provide an unbiased review of the requirements and software implemented 
on operations and maintenance contracts. The IV&V team will confirm 
that requirements are correctly defined and the system adequately 
implements required business functionality and security requirements by 
performing comprehensive reviews, analyses, and testing.

NCUA Website Development ($0.1 Million)

    This project provides ongoing improvements to the website, such as 
an improved user experience, and supports the ongoing maintenance needs 
of the agency's public websites. In addition, the NCUA will develop a 
gated content solution for specific audiences to provide a level of 
privacy and security for accessing information, such as conference 
materials, by requiring a login and password similar to other remote 
and virtual conference systems.

Headquarters Building Minor Construction and Maintenance Projects ($0.5 
Million)

    The NCUA has developed a 10-year headquarters building improvement 
plan that identifies projects that can be completed incrementally. This 
approach recognizes ongoing building management and maintenance needs 
while reducing the potential budgetary impact of such projects in a 
single budget year. The NCUA has 26 projects planned in 2023.

Financial Management Process Automation

    The 2023 budget would apply $400,000 previously approved by the 
NCUA Board to pay for efforts to implement technology-based solutions 
to automate manual financial and budgetary processes. This adds no 
additional cost to the budget. The $400,000 was originally approved by 
the Board to improve financial integration and automation by evaluating 
options for alternatives to the agency's current accounting platform 
and service. Since 2020, the accounting system service provider has 
improved its systems capabilities and is planning enhancements that 
could support automation and integration efforts at the NCUA, 
eliminating the need for an alternate provider. Planned process 
automation activities in 2023 include optimizing and prioritizing 
current processes to prepare for automation, building technical 
competencies within finance staff to use business intelligence tools, 
establishing a governance and configuration management structure for 
these activities, and reducing manual process activity.

VI. Share Insurance Fund Administrative Budget

Overview

    The Share Insurance Fund Administrative Budget funds direct costs 
associated with authorized Share Insurance Fund activities.\19\ Direct 
costs to the Share Insurance Fund include items such as data 
subscriptions and technology tools for ONES' analysis of large credit 
unions, travel for state examiners attending NCUA-sponsored training, 
and audit support for the Share Insurance Fund's financial statements. 
Beginning in 2022, the Share Insurance Fund Administrative Budget also 
started to include certain insurance-related expenses for AMAC 
operations.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \19\ Direct costs do not include any costs that are shared with 
the Operating Fund through the Overhead Transfer Rate, and with 
payments available upon requisition by the Board, without fiscal 
year limitation, for insurance under section 1787 of this title, and 
for providing assistance and making expenditures under section 1788 
of this title in connection with the liquidation or threatened 
liquidation of insured credit unions as it may determine to be 
proper.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The Share Insurance Fund Administrative Budget also pays for costs 
associated with the corporate resolution program and related NCUA 
Guaranteed Notes (NGN) program. On June 14, 2021, the last outstanding 
NGN Trust matured. Given the significantly reduced size of the legacy 
asset portfolio in the corporate asset management estates, the budget 
for the corporate resolution program continues to decrease in 2023 
compared to the 2022 funding levels.

Budget Requirements and Description

    The 2023 Share Insurance Fund Administrative budget is estimated to 
be $4.9 million, which is $1.3 million, or 21.5 percent, lower than 
2022.
    The 2023 budget decrease is primarily driven by the ongoing 
completion of corporate resolution program activities, an expected 
reduction in travel for state examiners attending NCUA-sponsored 
training, as well as the one-time corporate resolution study that was 
funded in 2022.
    The 2024 requested budget supports similar workload and resources 
for the Share Insurance Fund, which are expected to remain the same as 
2023 at $4.3 million, and includes no corporate resolution program 
related costs.

Share Insurance Fund Direct Expenses

    Direct expenses to the Share Insurance Fund are estimated to be 
$4.3 million in 2023, a decrease of $0.5 million, or 9.8 percent, 
compared to the 2022 budget level.
    Direct charges to the Share Insurance Fund include $2.0 million for 
operating and maintenance costs of the Asset and Liabilities Management 
system (ALM), which allows the NCUA to build internal analytical 
capabilities to conduct supervisory stress testing analyses and to 
perform other quantitative risk assessments of large credit unions.
    In 2023, the Share Insurance Fund will continue to pay for certain 
insurance-related activities and expenses of AMAC. The Share Insurance 
Fund budget includes $0.2 million for these AMAC activities, such as 
consulting expenses necessary to prevent or attempt to prevent a 
liquidation or conservatorship and staff travel for consultation on 
complex or problem cases.
    The 2023 budget also includes funds related to the supervisory 
responsibilities that the NCUA shares with state supervisory 
authorities. The Share Insurance Fund budget includes $1.0 million for 
state examiner travel to NCUA-sponsored training classes, and $0.2 
million to ensure that state supervisory authorities can use the full 
functionality of the recently deployed MERIT examination system. The 
2022 budget included similar amounts for these activities.
    Finally, the Share Insurance Fund budget includes $0.8 million for 
financial reporting, including the annual financial audit and for 
contractor support to ensure effective internal controls for the fund.

Corporate Resolution Program

    In 2017, the Board voted to close the Temporary Corporate Credit 
Union Stabilization Fund. Since 2018, the Share Insurance Fund has 
funded the related costs to include employee pay, benefits, travel, and 
contract support required to support the program.
    The program budget decreased by 58.2 percent from 2021 to 2022. As 
the

[[Page 60468]]

remaining legacy assets are sold and the program comes to a close, the 
associated budget continues to decrease and falls by 59.2 percent from 
2022 to 2023. The only remaining expenses for the program in 2023 are 
$0.4 million for legacy asset waterfall models and $0.2 million for 
valuation analysis support and data.
    With expected wind-down of the program in 2023, there is no 
corporate resolution budget planned for 2024.
BILLING CODE 7535-01-P
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN05OC22.012

BILLING CODE 7535-01-C

VII. Financing the NCUA's Programs

Overview

    The NCUA incurs various expenses to achieve its statutory mission, 
including those involved in examining and supervising federally insured 
credit unions. The NCUA Board adopts an Operating Budget, a Capital 
Budget, and a Share Insurance Fund Administrative

[[Page 60469]]

Budget each year to fund the vast majority of the costs of operating 
the agency.\20\ When formulating the annual budget, the NCUA is mindful 
that its funding comes from credit unions. The agency strives to ensure 
the agency operates in an efficient, effective, transparent, and fully 
accountable manner.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \20\ Some costs are directly charged to the Share Insurance Fund 
when appropriate to do so. For example, costs for training and 
equipment provided to State Supervisory Authorities are directly 
charged to the Share Insurance Fund.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The Federal Credit Union Act authorizes two primary sources to fund 
the Operating Budget:
    1. Requisitions from the Share Insurance Fund ``for such 
administrative and other expenses incurred in carrying out the purposes 
of [Title II of the Act] as [the Board] may determine to be proper''; 
\21\ and
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \21\ 12 U.S.C. 1783(a).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    2. ``fees and assessments (including income earned on insurance 
deposits) levied on insured credit unions under [the Act].'' \22\ Among 
the fees levied under the Act are annual Operating Fees, which are 
required for federal credit unions under 12 U.S.C. 1755 ``and may be 
expended by the Board to defray the expenses incurred in carrying out 
the provisions of [the Act,] including the examination and supervision 
of [federal credit unions].''
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \22\ 12 U.S.C. 1766(j)(3). Other sources of income for the 
Operating Budget have included interest income, funds from 
publication sales, parking fee income, and rental income.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Taken together, these authorities effectively require the Board to 
determine which expenses are appropriately paid from each source while 
giving the Board broad discretion in allocating expenses.
    In 1972, the Government Accountability Office recommended the NCUA 
adopt a method for allocating Operating Budget costs--that is, the 
portion of the NCUA's budget funded by requisitions from the Share 
Insurance Fund and the portion covered by Operating Fees paid by 
federal credit unions.\23\ The NCUA has since used an allocation 
methodology known as the Overhead Transfer Rate to determine how much 
of the Operating Budget to fund with a requisition from the Share 
Insurance Fund.
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    \23\ https://www.gao.gov/products/b-1640314-31.
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    The NCUA uses the Overhead Transfer Rate methodology to allocate 
agency expenses between these two primary funding sources. 
Specifically, the Overhead Transfer Rate is the formula the NCUA uses 
to allocate insurance-related expenses to the Share Insurance Fund 
under Title II of the Act. Almost all other operating expenses are 
funded through collecting annual Operating Fees paid by federal credit 
unions.\24\
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    \24\ Annual Operating Fees must ``be determined according to a 
schedule, or schedules, or other method determined by the NCUA Board 
to be appropriate, which gives due consideration to the expenses of 
the [NCUA] in carrying out its responsibilities under the [Act] and 
to the ability of [federal credit unions] to pay the fee.'' 12 
U.S.C. 1755(b).
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    Two statutory provisions directly limit the Board's discretion with 
respect to Share Insurance Fund requisitions for the NCUA's Operating 
Budget and, hence, the Overhead Transfer Rate. First, expenses funded 
from the Share Insurance Fund must carry out the purposes of Title II 
of the Act, which relate to share insurance.\25\ Second, the NCUA may 
not fund its entire Operating Budget through charges to the Share 
Insurance Fund.\26\ The NCUA has not imposed additional policy or 
regulatory limitations on its discretion for determining the Overhead 
Transfer Rate.
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    \25\ 12 U.S.C. 1783(a).
    \26\ The Act in 12 U.S.C. 1755(a) states, ``[i]n accordance with 
rules prescribed by the Board, each [federal credit union] shall pay 
to the [NCUA] an annual operating fee which may be composed of one 
or more charges identified as to the function or functions for which 
assessed.'' See also 12 U.S.C. 1766(j)(3).
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    The NCUA conducts a comprehensive workload analysis annually. This 
analysis estimates the amount of time necessary to conduct examinations 
and supervise federally insured credit unions in order to carry out the 
NCUA's dual mission as insurer and regulator. This analysis starts with 
a field-level review of every federally insured credit union to 
estimate the number of workload hours needed for the year. These 
estimates are informed by the overall parameters of the NCUA's 
examination program, as most recently updated by the Exam Flexibility 
Initiative approved by the Board.\27\ The workload estimates are then 
refined by regional managers and submitted to the NCUA headquarters for 
the annual budget proposal. The Overhead Transfer Rate methodology 
accounts for the costs of the NCUA, not the costs of state regulators. 
Therefore, there are no calculations made for state examiner hours.
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    \27\ The Exam Flexibility Initiative started with the January 1, 
2017, examination cycle, and it allows for extended examination 
cycles for eligible credit unions. Letters to Credit Unions 16-CU-
12, December 2016.
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Overhead Transfer Rate

    There have not been any major changes to the parameters of the 
examination program since the current Overhead Transfer Rate 
methodology went into effect.\28\ The minor variations in the Overhead 
Transfer Rate since 2018 are the result of routine, small fluctuations 
in the variables that affect the Overhead Transfer Rate, including 
normal fluctuations in the workload budget from one calendar year to 
the next.
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    \28\ On November 16, 2017, the NCUA Board adopted a new 
methodology for calculating the Overhead Transfer Rate starting with 
the 2018 Overhead Transfer Rate. 82 FR 55644, November 22, 2017.
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    The NCUA Board approved the current methodology for calculating the 
Overhead Transfer Rate at its November 2017 open meeting.\29\ In 2020, 
the Board published in the Federal Register a request for comment 
regarding the Overhead Transfer Rate methodology but did not propose or 
adopt any changes to the current methodology.\30\ The Overhead Transfer 
Rate is designed to cover the NCUA's costs of examining and supervising 
the risk to the Share Insurance Fund posed by all federally insured 
credit unions, as well as the costs of administering the fund. The 
Overhead Transfer Rate represents the percentage of the agency's 
operating budget paid for by a transfer from the Share Insurance Fund. 
Federally insured credit unions are not billed for and do not have to 
remit the Overhead Transfer Rate amount; instead, it is transferred 
directly to the Operating Fund from the Share Insurance Fund. This 
transfer, therefore, represents a cost to all federally insured credit 
unions.
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    \29\ 82 FR 55644 (Nov. 22, 2017).
    \30\ https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/08/31/2020-17009/request-for-comment-regarding-national-credit-union-administration-overhead-transfer-rate.
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    The Overhead Transfer Rate formula uses the following underlying 
principles to allocate agency operating costs:
    1. Time spent examining and supervising federal credit unions is 
allocated as 50 percent insurance related.\31\
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    \31\ The 50 percent allocation mathematically emulates an 
examination and supervision program design where the NCUA would 
alternate examinations, and/or conduct joint examinations, between 
its insurance function and its prudential regulator function if they 
were separate units within the NCUA. It reflects an equal sharing of 
supervisory responsibilities between the NCUA's dual roles as 
charterer/prudential regulator and insurer given both roles have a 
vested interest in the safety and soundness of federal credit 
unions. It is consistent with the alternating examinations the FDIC 
and state regulators conduct for insured state-chartered banks as 
mandated by Congress. Further, it reflects that the NCUA is 
responsible for managing risk to the Share Insurance Fund and 
therefore should not rely solely on examinations and supervision 
conducted by the prudential regulator.
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    2. All time and costs the NCUA spends supervising or evaluating the 
risks posed by federally insured, state-

[[Page 60470]]

chartered credit unions or other entities that the NCUA does not 
charter or regulate (for example, third-party vendors and Credit Union 
Service Organizations (CUSOs)) are allocated as 100 percent insurance 
related.\32\
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    \32\ The NCUA does not charter state-chartered credit unions nor 
serve as their prudential regulator. The NCUA's role with respect to 
federally insured state-chartered credit unions is as insurer. 
Therefore, all examination and supervision work and other agency 
costs attributable to insured state-chartered credit unions is 
allocated as 100 percent insurance related.
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    3. Time and costs related to the NCUA's role as charterer and 
enforcer of consumer protection and other non-insurance-based laws 
governing the operation of credit unions (like field of membership 
requirements) are allocated as 0 percent insurance related.\33\
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    \33\ As the federal agency with the responsibility to charter 
federal credit unions and enforce non-insurance related laws 
governing how credit unions operate in the marketplace, the NCUA 
resources allocated to these functions are properly assigned to its 
role as charterer/prudential regulator.
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    4. Time and costs related to the NCUA's role in administering 
federal share insurance and the Share Insurance Fund are allocated as 
100 percent insurance related.\34\
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    \34\ The NCUA conducts liquidations of credit unions, insured 
share payouts, and other resolution activities in its role as 
insurer. Also, activities related to share insurance, such as 
answering consumer inquiries about insurance coverage, are a 
function of the NCUA's role as insurer.
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    These four principles are applied to the activities and costs of 
the agency to determine the portion of the agency's budget that is 
funded by the Share Insurance Fund. Based on the Board-approved 
methodology and the proposed budget, the Overhead Transfer Rate for 
2023 is 30 basis points (0.3 percent) lower than for 2022, and 
estimated to be 62.4 percent. Thus, 62.4 percent of the total Operating 
Budget is estimated to be paid out of the Share Insurance Fund. The 
remaining 37.6 percent of the Operating Budget is estimated to be paid 
for by Operating Fees collected from federal credit unions. The 
explicit and implicit distribution of total Operating Budget costs for 
federal credit unions and federally insured, state-chartered credit 
unions is outlined in the table below:
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN05OC22.013

    To determine the funds transferred from the Share Insurance Fund to 
the Operating Fund, the Overhead Transfer Rate is applied to actual 
expenses incurred each month. Therefore, the rate calculated by the 
Overhead Transfer Rate formula is multiplied by each month's actual 
operating expenditures and the product of that calculation is 
transferred from the Share Insurance Fund to the Operating Fund. This 
monthly reconciliation to actual operating expenditures captures the 
variance between actual and budgeted amounts, so when the NCUA's 
expenditures are less than budgeted, the amount charged to the Share 
Insurance Fund is also less--and those lower expenditures benefit both 
federally chartered and federally insured, state-chartered credit 
unions.
    The use of insured shares in calculating the Overhead Transfer Rate 
was eliminated from the Overhead Transfer Rate methodology adopted by 
the Board in 2017. However, insured shares are used for informational 
purposes to reflect the fundamental economics with respect to how the 
implicit costs of the Overhead Transfer Rate are borne by federal and 
state-chartered credit unions. Use of insured shares is consistent with 
the mutual nature of the Share Insurance Fund and part of the statutory 
scheme related to Share Insurance Fund deposits, premiums, and 
dividends.\35\ The number, size, and health of federal and state credit 
unions affects the NCUA's workload budget, which in turn is one of the 
variables in the Overhead Transfer Rate methodology.
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    \35\ 12 U.S.C. 1782(c)(2) and (3).
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    The primary drivers of the change in the estimated 2023 Overhead 
Transfer Rate result from changes in the draft examiner workload budget 
and the proposed funding levels in the draft operating and capital 
budgets. First, there is a modest decrease in insurance-related time 
reflected in the draft examiner workload budget for 2023, as resources 
allocated to overseeing the examination and supervision of federal 
credit unions increased twice as much as the resources allocated toward 
overseeing state-chartered credit unions. Second, there is a modest 
decrease in the 2023 budget for the Asset Management and Assistance 
Center. The estimated Overhead Transfer Rate cost distribution between 
federal credit unions and federally insured, state-chartered credit 
unions is projected to be relatively equal and results in an 
approximate 15-basis point drop for both from 2022 to 2023. The 
distribution of insured shares between federal credit unions and 
federally insured, state-chartered credit unions remains virtually 
unchanged year-over-year.
    CUSOs are at times subject to review during the examination of a 
federally insured credit union. The Overhead Transfer Rate methodology 
captures CUSO-related time within the scope of the examination and 
supervision of federally insured credit unions under Principle 1 for 
federal credit unions and Principle 2 for federally insured state-
chartered credit unions. The time designated for separate, standalone 
reviews of CUSOs and third-party vendors is accounted for separately in 
the NCUA's workload budget and is covered by Principle 2 only. The 
standalone review of CUSOs and third-party vendors is to identify and 
address risk to federally insured credit unions.
    The following chart illustrates the share of the Operating Budget 
paid by federal credit unions (68.8%) and federally insured, state-
chartered credit unions (31.2%).

[[Page 60471]]

[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN05OC22.014

Operating Fee

    The Board delegated authority to the Chief Financial Officer to 
administer the methodology approved by the Board for calculating the 
Operating Fee and to set the fee schedule as calculated per the 
approved methodology. In 2020, the Board approved and published in the 
Federal Register the current Operating Fee methodology, which forms the 
basis for how the Operating Fee is calculated in this section.\36\ 
Consistent with its triennial schedule for regulatory reviews, the NCUA 
expects to request public comment about the Operating Fee methodology 
in 2023. Among the issues of interest to the NCUA Board about the 
Operating Fee methodology, the agency plans to ask for public views 
about how it should determine the asset threshold below which smaller 
credit unions are exempt from paying the operating fee, how it should 
determine an equitable distribution schedule of operating fee rates 
based on credit union size, and whether other factors should be 
considered when calculating the fees collected from credit unions.
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    \36\ https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2020-12-31/pdf/2020-28490.pdf.
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    To determine the annual Operating Fee assessed on natural person 
federal credit unions using the current methodology, the NCUA first 
calculates the average of total assets reported in the preceding four 
calendar quarters available at the time of the calculation, net of any 
reported Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans. Credit unions with 
assets less than $1 million are not assessed an Operating Fee and their 
assets are therefore excluded from this calculation.
    Based on the Board-approved Operating Fee methodology, which is 
summarized in the following tables, the share of the 2023 budget funded 
by the Operating Fee is $134.7 million. This equates to 0.0129 percent 
of the actual average of natural person federal credit union assets for 
the four calendar quarters ending on June 30, 2022. The calculated 
Operating Fee rate for 2023 increases 15.4 percent compared to the rate 
in 2022, as shown on the table on the following page. It is important 
to note, however, that the Operating Fee rate for 2022 was 23.7 percent 
lower than the 2021 rates. Therefore, although the 2023 average 
Operating Fee rate is projected to increase to 0.0129 percent of 
natural person federal credit union assets in 2023, it is still 11.6 
percent lower than the average 0.0146 percent rate charged in 2021.
    As part of the Board-approved Operating Fee methodology, the NCUA 
can adjust the share of the budget funded by the Operating Fee based on 
an analysis of the agency's future cash flow requirements compared to 
past years' collections that were not spent as planned. Any projected 
surplus cash from past years' fee collections not required to finance 
agency operations can accordingly be used to lower the Operating Fee 
share of the proposed budget. Because such cash surpluses result from 
past years' Operating Fee collections, they do not offset the portion 
of the budget funded by the Overhead Transfer Rate. As the final 2023-
2024 budget is prepared for consideration by the NCUA Board, the Chief 
Financial Officer will evaluate the agency's cash position and make a 
recommendation about any surplus cash that can be credited to the 
operating fee.
    To set the assessment scale for 2023, total growth in natural 
person federal credit union assets is calculated as the change between 
the average of the four most-current quarters (i.e., the third and 
fourth quarters of 2021 and the first two quarters of 2022) and the 
previous four quarters (i.e., the third and fourth quarter of 2020 and 
the first two quarters of 2021), which is estimated to be 11.6 percent. 
Asset level dividing points are likewise increased by this same growth 
rate in order to preserve the same relative relationship of the scale 
to the applicable asset base.
BILLING CODE 7535-01-P

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[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN05OC22.015

Operating Fee Scale

    To illustrate the rate for each asset tier for which Operating Fees 
are charged, the tables below show the effect of the average 15.4 
percent increase in the Operating Fee for natural person federal credit 
unions. The corporate federal credit union rate scale remains unchanged 
from prior years.
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN05OC22.016

VII. Appendix A: Supplemental Budget Information

Budget by Strategic Goal

    The table below shows the combined total of the 2023 Staff Draft 
Operating and Capital Budgets, organized by the NCUA's three current 
strategic goals.

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[FR Doc. 2022-21457 Filed 10-4-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7535-01-C