National Credit Union Administration 2015 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The NCUA Board (Board) is amending its share insurance regulations to implement statutory amendments to the Federal Credit Union Act (FCU Act or the Act) resulting from the recent enactment of the Credit Union Share Insurance Fund Parity Act (Insurance Parity Act). The statutory amendments require NCUA to provide enhanced, pass- through share insurance for interest on lawyers trust accounts (IOLTA) and other similar escrow accounts. As its name implies, the Insurance Parity Act ensures that NCUA and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) insure IOLTAs and other similar escrow accounts in an equivalent manner.

National Credit Union Administration is announcing that a proposed collection of information has been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA). This is related to NCUA's regulation 701.22 that outlines requirements for loan participation programs. The rule requires various information collections, which NCUA uses to ensure credit unions have implemented a safe and sound loan participation program.

The NCUA has submitted to OMB a request for approval under the PRA of the collection of information discussed below. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a respondent is not required to respond to, an information collection unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number.

The NCUA Board (Board) is amending NCUA's current regulations regarding prompt corrective action (PCA) to require that credit unions taking certain risks hold capital commensurate with those risks. The risk-based capital provisions of this final rule apply only to federally insured, natural-person credit unions with assets over $100 million. The overarching intent is to reduce the likelihood of a relatively small number of high-risk outliers exhausting their capital and causing systemic losseswhich, by law, all federally insured credit unions would have to pay through the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund (NCUSIF). This final rule restructures NCUA's PCA regulations and makes various revisions, including amending the agency's current risk-based net worth requirement by replacing it with a new risk-based capital ratio for federally insured, natural-person credit unions (credit unions). The risk-based capital requirement set forth in this final rule is more consistent with NCUA's risk-based capital measure for corporate credit unions and, as the law requires, more comparable to the regulatory risk-based capital measures used by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and Office of the Comptroller of Currency (Other Banking Agencies). The effective date is intended to coincide with the full phase-in of FDIC's risk-based capital measures in 2019. The final rule also eliminates several provisions in NCUA's current PCA regulations, including provisions relating to the regular reserve account, risk-mitigation credits, and alternative risk weights.

The NCUA Board (Board) is issuing this final rule to exclude Central Liquidity Facility-related bridge loans (CLF-related bridge loans) from the aggregate unsecured lending cap to one borrower applicable to corporate credit unions (Corporates). Specifically, a CLF-related bridge loan that is exempt from that cap is a bridge loan made by a Corporate to a natural person credit union where the natural person credit union has been approved for a loan by the CLF and is awaiting funding from the CLF. Additionally, this rule excludes CLF- related bridge loans from the calculation of ``net assets'' and ``net risk weighted assets'' for determining minimum capital requirements.

The NCUA intends to submit the following information collection to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13, 44 U.S.C. Chapter 35). This information collection is published to obtain comments from the public. NCUA amended its credit union service organization (CUSO) regulation to increase transparency and address certain safety and soundness concerns. The final rule extends certain requirements of the CUSO regulation to federally insured, state- chartered credit unions and imposes new requirements on federally insured credit unions (FICUs). Under the amended rule FICUs with an investment in, or loan to, a CUSO must obtain a written agreement with the CUSO addressing accounting, financial statements, audits, reporting, and legal opinions. The rule limits the ability of a ``less than adequately capitalized'' FICU to recapitalize an insolvent CUSO. All CUSOs are required to annually provide basic profile information to NCUA and the appropriate state supervisory authority (SSA). CUSOs engaging in certain complex or high-risk activities are also required to report more detailed information, including audited financial statements and customer information.

The NCUA Board is issuing a final Interpretive Ruling and Policy Statement to establish a Minority Depository Institution Preservation Program for federally insured credit unions.

National Credit Union Administration is announcing that a proposed collection of information has been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13, 44 U.S.C. Chapter 35). The purpose of this notice is to allow for 30 days of public comment. This information collection is published to obtain comments from the public. The information collection relates to the requirements under the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 and the Flood Disaster Protection Act of 1973 (Flood Acts),\1\ as amended by the National Flood Insurance Reform Act of 1994.\2\ NCUA has implemented these flood insurance requirements in its regulations. Under the Flood Acts and the regulations, federally insured credit unions must follow recordkeeping and disclosure provisions regarding certain loans that require flood insurance.

The NCUA Board (Board) proposes to exclude Central Liquidity Facility (CLF)-related bridge loans (CLF-related bridge loans) from the aggregate unsecured lending cap to one borrower applicable to a corporate credit union (Corporate). Specifically, a CLF-related bridge loan that is exempt from that cap is a bridge loan made by a Corporate to a natural person credit union when the natural person credit union has been approved for a loan by the CLF and is awaiting funding from the CLF. Additionally, the proposal excludes CLF-related bridge loans from the calculation of ``net assets'' and ``net risk weighted assets'' for determining minimum capital requirements. This proposal results largely from comments the Board received on the November 2014 proposed rule amending NCUA's Corporate regulations.

The NCUA Board (Board) is issuing a final regulation to amend the associational common bond provisions of NCUA's chartering and field of membership requirements. Specifically, the amendments establish a threshold requirement which provides that, in order for an association to qualify to be part of a federal credit union's (FCU) field of membership (FOM), the association must not have been formed primarily for the purpose of expanding credit union membership. The amendments also expand the criteria in NCUA's current totality of the circumstances test, which is a regulatory tool used to determine if an association, after satisfying the above-referenced threshold requirement, also satisfies the associational common bond requirements necessary to qualify for inclusion in an FCU's FOM. The amendments will better ensure that FCUs comply with established membership requirements. Additionally, NCUA is granting automatic membership qualification under the associational common bond requirements to certain categories of associations that NCUA has routinely approved for FCU membership in the past. For ease of reading, NCUA uses the terms ``association'' and ``group'' interchangeably in this rulemaking.

The NCUA Board (Board) is issuing for public comment this proposed rule (2015 proposal) to amend its regulation governing federal credit union (FCU) ownership of fixed assets. To provide regulatory relief to FCUs, the 2015 proposal eliminates a provision in the current fixed assets rule that established a five percent aggregate limit on investments in fixed assets for FCUs with $1,000,000 or more in assets. It also eliminates the provisions in the current fixed assets rule relating to waivers from the aggregate limit. Further, instead of applying the prescriptive aggregate limit provided by regulation in the current fixed assets rule, the Board proposes to oversee FCU ownership of fixed assets through the supervisory process and guidance. The 2015 proposal also makes conforming amendments to the scope and definitions sections of the current fixed assets rule to reflect this proposed approach, and it amends the title of Sec. 701.36 to more accurately reflect this amended scope and applicability. In addition, the 2015 proposal simplifies the fixed assets rule's partial occupancy requirements for FCU premises acquired for future expansion by establishing a single six-year time period for partial occupancy of such premises and by removing the 30-month requirement for partial occupancy waiver requests. The Board notes that, in July 2014, it issued a proposal regarding the fixed assets rule that addressed, among other things, the partial occupancy provisions of the fixed assets rule (July 2014 proposal), but NCUA did not finalize that proposal. For reasons discussed below, the 2015 proposal incorporates similar partial occupancy proposed amendments from the July 2014 proposal, with one modification to the time period for partial occupancy.

The NCUA Board (Board) proposes to amend Interpretive Ruling and Policy Statement (IRPS) 87-2, as amended by IRPS 03-2 and 13-1. The amended IRPS would increase the asset threshold used to define small entity under the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) from $50 million to $100 million and, thereby, provide transparent consideration of regulatory relief for a greater number of credit unions in future rulemakings. The proposed rule and IRPS also make a technical change to NCUA's regulations in connection with NCUA's procedures for developing regulations.

The NCUA Board (Board) is seeking comment on a second proposed rule that would amend NCUA's current regulations regarding prompt corrective action (PCA) to require that credit unions taking certain risks hold capital commensurate with those risks. The proposal would restructure NCUA's PCA regulations and make various revisions, including amending the agency's current risk-based net worth requirement by replacing the current risk-based net worth ratio with a new risk-based capital ratio for federally insured natural person credit unions (credit unions). The proposal would also, in response to public comments received, make a number of changes to the original proposed rule that the Board published in the Federal Register on February 27, 2014. These changes include, among other things, exempting credit unions with up to $100 million in total assets from the new rule, lowering the risk-based capital ratio level required for an affected credit union to be classified as well capitalized from 10.5 percent to 10 percent, lowering the risk weights for various classes of assets, removing interest rate risk components from the risk weights, and extending the implementation timeframe to January 1, 2019. These changes would substantially reduce the number of credit unions subject to the rule, reduce the impact on affected credit unions, and afford affected credit unions sufficient time to prepare for the rule's implementation. The proposed risk-based capital requirement set forth in this proposal would be more consistent with NCUA's risk-based capital measure for corporate credit unions and more comparable to the regulatory risk-based capital measures used by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, and Office of the Comptroller of Currency (Other Banking Agencies). In addition, the proposed revisions would amend the risk weights for many of NCUA's current asset classifications; require higher minimum levels of capital for credit unions with concentrations of assets in real estate loans or commercial loans or higher levels of non-current loans; and set forth how NCUA can address a credit union that does not hold capital that is commensurate with its risk. The proposed revisions would also eliminate several provisions in NCUA's current PCA regulations, including provisions relating to the regular reserve account, risk-mitigation credits, and alternative risk weights. (For clarity, the ``current'' PCA regulations would remain in force until the effective date of a final risk-based capital rule.)

NCUA is announcing that a proposed collection of information has been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA) (Pub. L. 104-13, 44 U.S.C. Chapter 35). The purpose of this notice is to allow for 30 days of public comment. This is related to NCUA's regulation that prohibits, in certain circumstances, a federally insured credit union (FICU) from making golden parachute and indemnification payments to an institution-affiliated party (IAP). The regulation requires requests for a troubled FICU to make a severance or golden parachute payment to an IAP to be submitted in writing to NCUA.

The NCUA intends to submit the following information collection to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13, 44 U.S.C. Chapter 35). This information collection notice is published to obtain comments from the public. In connection with NCUA's effort to streamline the process and increase feedback obtained from the public on service delivery, NCUA intends to amend, 3133-0188, ``Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service Delivery''.

The NCUA intends to submit the following proposed collection of information to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104- 13, 44 U.S.C. Chapter 35). This information collection notice is published to obtain comments from the public. This is related to NCUA's Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) regulation. NCUA uses the information provided to ensure the purpose of PCA is being carried out and that credit unions build adequate levels of net worth within a reasonable time.

The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) is issuing a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) to invite eligible credit unions to submit applications for participation in the OSCUI Grant Program (a.k.a. Community Development Revolving Loan Fund (CDRLF)), subject to funding availability. The OSCUI Grant Program serves as a source of financial support, in the form of technical assistance grants, for credit unions serving predominantly low-income members. It also serves as a source of funding to help low-income designated credit unions (LICUs) respond to emergencies arising in their communities.