ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The NCUA board unanimously approved a field-of-membership expansion for AERO FCU Thursday during its monthly board meeting.
The expansion will allow the Glendale, Ariz.-based AERO to serve more than 500 additional census tracts throughout Arizona and New Mexico, including portions of seven different Native American reservations that currently have virtually no financial services, the agency said.
The $215 million CU currently serves nearly 16,000 members. The FOM expansion opens up membership to more than two million people living in underserved communities in and around Phoenix and Albuquerque.
The board also unanimously approved a "Notice and Request for Comment" to be reviewed under the Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act, which requires the FFIEC member agencies to review regulations at least once per decade to identify any rules which might be outdated, ineffective, unnecessary, insufficient or excessively burdensome.
NCUA noted in a statement that it is not required to participate but has chosen to do so.
"This interagency review aligns perfectly with NCUA's ongoing Regulatory Modernization Initiative," said NCUA Board Chairman Debbie Matz. "Under my initiative and President Obama's Executive Order 13579, we are committed to regular retrospective analysis of our rules with an eye towards streamlining, modernizing or even repealing regulations when appropriate. We are eager to hear new ideas about changing existing rules, and we'll consider every recommendation to improve them."
As in years past, NCUA is also set to hold three "listening sessions" this summer.
During the board meeting, NCUA's CFO also announced that the net position of the Stabilization Fund has improved by more than $100 million, from a $142.2 million deficit at the end of 2013 to a $40.4 million deficit at the end of Q1 2014.
The improvement was primarily the result of improvements in projected cash flows relating to legacy assets in the agency's guaranteed notes program.
