NCUA prepares to return $160M in dividends

The National Credit Union Administration will issue $160.1 million in dividends to over 5,500 eligible institutions from its share insurance fund.

The dividend was approved by the NCUA board in March after the fund posted a 1.39% equity ratio. That ratio is above the board’s normal operating level of 1.38%.

“Prudent actions by the NCUA board and the agency’s successful stewardship of the share insurance fund made this distribution possible,” Rodney E. Hood, chairman of the NCUA board, said in a statement on Tuesday.

Eligible recipients are those that filed a quarterly call report as a federally insured credit union for a minimum of one reporting period during 2018.

The dividend is believed to be the second-largest equity distribution in the history of the share insurance fund. Last year’s the NCUA paid out a special distribution of $736 million following the merger of the share insurance fund and the stabilization fund.

NCUA’s board will continue to evaluate the share insurance fund for risk and other industry trends.

“I’m delighted the NCUA has been able to issue nearly $900 million in equity distributions over the past year — money that is going back into communities to support small businesses, promote economic growth, and improve the financial well-being of credit union members across the country,” Hood said in the statement.