WASHINGTON While supportive of the proposal, CUNA is calling on NCUA to make some tweaks to proposed changes to its fixed-asset rule.
In a letter to the agency, CUNA is urging substantive changes to its fixed-asset rules to make it “more effective and meaningful.”
“The rule in its current and proposed forms gives NCUA staff too much authority over the business decisions of federal credit unions...Involving itself into the decision-making process of credit unions is outside the duties for which the NCUA was created. CUNA is confident that credit unions themselves are in the best position to make business decisions and, conversely, are at a competitive disadvantage when NCUA dictates their business decisions to them,” wrote CUNA’s Mary Dunn.
Among the changes being proposed by CUNA: * Elimination of the current regulatory limit imposed on the ownership of fixed assets, which is 5% of an FCU’s shares, since it is not required under the FCU Act. * Improving the rule’s definition of “partially occupy” to clear up some credit union confusion. * If the cap is retained, using the blanket waiver concept to give credit unions additional flexibility under the fixed-assets rule. * Adding an appeal process to denied fixed-asset rule waiver requests. * Issuing an annual report detailing fixed-asset rule waiver-request statistics from each region.
