ALEXANDRIA, Va.—NAFCU and CUNA have both offered suggestions to NCUA on ways to improve communications with credit unions, including making adjustments to its website.
The input came in response to the agency’s request for information on the issue.
NAFCU Regulatory Affairs Counsel Aminah Moore noted several ways to improve the NCUA's communication methods, including suggesting areas to increase transparency.
Moore said NCUA’s communication channels can be improved by minimizing the number of existing communication channels and by a restructuring of the agency’s website at www.ncua.gov.
Specifically, Moore requested the agency consolidate its supervisory guidance into fewer letterheads. The NCUA currently uses nine different forms of letterheads to issue regulatory and supervisory guidance.
NAFCU’s Suggestions
In addition, Moore suggested several ways NAFCU believes the agency can improve transparency and promote efficiency, including:
- Providing additional transparency regarding the agency’s policy on ex parte communications with credit union stakeholders
- Establishing a protocol to immediately alert NCUA member credit unions of dangerous threats
“Improving the communication and transparency of the NCUA will allow credit unions to easily comply with the NCUA’s regulations, free up resources for compliance with rules and regulations from other agencies and allow credit unions to spend more time providing products and services to meet the needs of their communities,” wrote Moore.
Moore also encouraged the agency to revisit its risk alert process and work to focus on delivering “timely, risk-focused, and actionable alerts,” that are specific to credit union cybersecurity threats.
“While six cybersecurity risk alerts have been issued in the last 15 years, a comprehensive program of alerts and other risk information sharing tools would more appropriately reflect the importance of protecting sensitive member information and ensuring operational resiliency,” added Moore. “More frequent publication of such alerts or tools would also support the NCUA’s strategic priorities, which have consistently identified cybersecurity as one of the top concerns affecting the entire the credit union system.”
CUNA’s Comment
In its letter, CUNA stressed it believes it is more important than ever for NCUA to ensure credit unions have timely access to necessary information from the agency.
Among the points raised in the CUNA letter:
- The trade group believes the current practice of issuing regulatory and supervisory guidance under a variety of different letterheads is helpful
- NCUA should review how its NCUA Express emails are being sent, as recipients have indicated they can be caught in spam filters
- CUNA encourages NCUA to utilize its Twitter and other social media accounts for conveying important, timely information
- NCUA should produce more webinars on examination findings and the issues they consistently see during routine examinations
- The agency should consider creating a page on its website that includes a running compilation of all issuances—whether about a proposed rulemaking, an update to the examination manual, or an announcement of a change to staff—in a single place
- NCUA could do a better job differentiating between supervisory and purely informational communication
- CUNA asks NCUA to comb its website to remove outdated, duplicative, and superseded regulatory and supervisory guidance