In Brief: NCUA Gearing Up for Electronic Exams

The National Credit Union Administration today is beginning to arm its examiners with notebook computers in preparation of the agency's new automated examination process.

The program, known as Automated Integrated Regulatory Examination System, should begin in earnest in July after several months of testing and examiner training, said Douglas D. Verner, director of the agency's Office of Technological Services.

Under the program, examiners will be able to download information directly from a credit union's data processing system.

"We're hoping it will improve the usage of examination time," Mr. Verner said. "It will provide examiners with more time to talk with employees to find out what's going on instead of crunching numbers."

Mr. Verner said with the new system the agency possibly could reduce the time and cost of examination, as well as cut traveling expenses.

In response to complaints from the California Credit Union League and others in the industry, the new system will break up personal information about members - names, social security numbers, and addresses - into different files and encode some of the data, Mr. Verner said.

Credit union officials complained that members would be susceptible to fraud if the data were consolidated, as originally planned.