NCUA Urges CU Forbearance

WASHINGTON - (09/02/05) -- NCUA called on credit unionsWednesday to waive ATM and overdraft fees, extend cash withdrawallimits, ease credit limits and take any steps reasonable in theease the relief effort for Hurricane Katrina. The credit unionregulator too the rare step of joining banking regulators in urgingforbearance in the face of one of the worst disasters ever to hitthe U.S. The regulators asked the lenders to consider andreasonable and prudent actions that might help meet the criticalneeds of their customers in the devastated communities. Among theadditional steps, they suggested are: waiving early withdrawalpenalties on CDs; making insurance checks quickly available;allowing borrowers to skip payments; easing restrictions on cashingout-of-state and non-customer checks. But the agencies also warnedto be sure of customer identification because of the increased riskof financial fraud during the spreading catastrophe. Joining thejoint communique was the Federal Reserve, FDIC, Comptroller of theCurrency and Office of Thrift Supervision.