NCUA Fines 84 CUs For Late Call Reports

ALEXANDRIA, Va.—Of the 104 federally insured credit unions that missed the April 25 call report filing deadline, 84 were fined last month by NCUA, according to a report from Northwest Credit Union Association's website.

The steepest fine is reported to be above $10,000.

NCUA has not yet released a list of the CUs that have been fined, or the amounts.

However, one of the institutions being fined is in Oregon and four are in Washington, according to NWCUA, which noted if the five Northwest credit unions sign consent orders, their penalties will range from $243 to $1,900.

The $4.3 million Longshore FCU in Hoquiam, Wash., told NWCUA that it has been fined. CEO Ruth Bryson said the regulator's action is "an expensive lesson for sure."

"It doesn't feel good, especially since we were cooperative about going to online filing when it first became available," Bryson said. "And we have not had any issues with late filings, with the exception of, at the very beginning, when the NCUA could not handle everyone trying to access the system during the same timeframe. However, it is true that neither person in our two-person office went online and verified the report was no longer in a pending status."

According to an NCUA report of late filers obtained by Credit Union Journal, of the 104 federally insured CUs that missed the April filing deadline the $120 million Animas CU in Farmington, N.M., was the tardiest, submitting its report 22 days late.

Among the slowest to file were the $147 million Sea Air FCU, Seal Beach, Calif. (13 days late) and the $5.2 million Arcadia City FCU, Arcadia, Calif., (12 days).

Next in line: the $15 million Bashas' Associates FCU, Tempe, Ariz.; $7 million Ray FCU, Kearny, Ariz.; $208,618 Rohm and Haas Employees CU, Chattanooga, Tenn.; $43 million Goetz CU in St. Joseph, Mo.; and $11,476 New Bethel FCU in Portsmouth, Va., each filing 11 days post-deadline.

Ninety-three of the late filers this time are credit unions with assets of less than $50 million: 64 have less than $10 million in assets, 29 between $10 to $50 million, 11 between $50 to $250 and none are above $250 million.

Fines Could Hit $1 Million Per Day
Of the 104 that filed late, 85 had been on time the previous quarter. As NCUA has stated, tardy CUs could be fined up to $1 million a day.

NCUA stated that late filers with no legitimate reason to file late received a notification letter from the agency describing the penalties the agency planned to assess and had 30 days to respond with any extenuating circumstances to avoid a fine. After that period a fine could be levied.

The 104 late filers represent an 80% drop from the 561 FCUs that submitted their fourth-quarter call reports late or made corrections after the Jan. 24 deadline.

Even with the big drop in first-quarter 2014 filings over year-end 2013, NCUA Board Chairman Debbie Matz said more than 100 is unacceptable.

"The goal is full compliance," Matz said in a statement. "More credit unions filed their call reports in a timely fashion, but 104 late filers is still far too many. It was particularly troubling that most of the credit unions that filed late for the first quarter had not done so the previous quarter, so they came in late even after NCUA brought this issue to their attention and announced plans for assessing penalties."

Three credit unions on NCUA's first-quarter call report late-filer list told Credit Union Journal they believed they would be off the hook and not face civil money penalties: Sea Air FCU, Arcadia City FCU and Bashas' Associates FCU.

The credit unions all contend their efforts to upload their call reports encountered a problem, something the CUs said they were unaware of until the agency notified them.