Week ahead: NCUA board set for budget vote

With the midterm election over it’s back to business in Washington and there is plenty in store for credit unions this week.

For starters, the National Credit Union Administration will hold its monthly open board meeting Thursday, with approvals for the agency’s 2019-2020 budget on the agenda along with the quarterly update on the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund.

NCUA’s budget proposal, released earlier this fall, finds the agency increasing its projected spending in the years ahead, though the regulator noted that costs are actually down once inflation is taken into account. That wasn’t good enough for credit union trade groups, which called on NCUA last month to make additional efforts to cut costs.

Jeanne Kucey, board chair for the National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions, urged NCUA to craft an “efficient budget that can be maintained long-term without relying on annual increases.”

The proposed budget is slated at $304.3 million, which is a 71 percent increase within the past decade, Kucey noted. Those increases come even as NCUA has decreased staffing levels, reduced office space and reorganized in order to shrink the agency, which oversees 25 percent fewer credit unions than it did a decade ago due to industry consolidation.

Credit Union Journal will have full coverage of Thursday’s board meeting.

10 years on

The week also kicked off with a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the 2008 financial crisis and the 10^th anniversary of Lehman Brothers’ collapse.

“Today’s hearing is a reminder that in the event of an economic downturn, the problems posed by ‘too big to fail’ financial institutions have sizable, real-life implications across the entire U.S. economy,” Dan Berger, president and CEO of the National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions, said in a statement. “That is why we believe Congress should consider a modernized Glass-Steagall Act to reduce the impact of 'too big to fail.”

Other legislative action this week includes a Senate Banking Committee hearing on oversight of pilot programs at Fannie and Freddie on Wednesday and testimony Thursday from Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Randal Quarles, who will also address the House Financial Services Committee this week. The Dodd-Frank Act requires the Fed’s vice chairman to testify semi-annually before the House. Quarles’ last testified in mid-April, remarking that "the U.S. commercial banking system has strengthened considerably over the past decade."