WASHINGTON—During a House Financial Services Committee mark-up this week Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) called on the NCUA to consider parity and extend its exam cycle for some credit unions as Congress considers legislation to do the same for banks.
NAFCU noted that it has repeatedly encouraged NCUA to use its authority to return all healthy and well-run credit unions to an extended exam cycle.
Tenney's comment came as the committee discussed her bill – the Small Bank Exam Cycle Improvement Act (HR 5076) – that would raise the 18-month exam threshold for banks from $1 billion to $3 billion. The committee advanced the legislation to the full House, NAFCU reported.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in 2016 approved an interim final rule allowing an 18-month examination cycle for qualified community banks and thrifts with less than $1 billion in assets; the Office of the Comptroller of Currency also had an identical interim rule in place for OCC-supervised banks. NCUA extended its exam cycles for credit unions with less than $1 billion in assets, effective Jan. 1, 2017.
NAFCU has argued that the NCUA returning to an 18-month exam cycle for healthy credit unions would save the agency resources and relieve credit unions of the burden of more frequent exams.