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Chairman Johnson testifies on regulatory relief

Johnson recommends regulatory reforms to the Senate Banking, Housing
and Urban Affairs Committee

Washington , D.C. ,  March 1, 2006 – National Credit Union Administration Chairman JoAnn Johnson today presented recommendations on regulatory relief for credit unions to the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.    

Reiterating many of the regulatory relief recommendations prescribed in 2005, Chairman Johnson said the agency continues to seek a statutory change authorizing NCUA to implement a risk-based prompt corrective action (PCA) system for federally insured credit unions, and she encouraged the Committee to consider changes to member business lending to improve credit unions’ ability to provide a source of needed credit to small businesses.

“I am always pleased to have the opportunity to appear before Congress and urge legislative changes that would, among other things, create a more reasonable and flexible system of prompt corrective action, allow credit unions to better serve small businesses, and update rules regarding healthy credit union mergers. It is encouraging that Congress is working to incorporate credit union provisions in any regulatory relief legislation that they consider." 

Regulatory relief requested

The regulatory relief provisions Chairman Johnson requested for credit unions include:

• Enable “retained earnings” of merging institutions to classify as net worth following a merger;
• Authorize FCUs to offer check cashing and money transfer services for potential members, particularly those left behind to predatory and high-cost financial companies;
• Eliminate 12-year maturity loan limits;
• Increase investment limits in CUSOs to 3 percent, or give NCUA the ability to set the limit;
• Expand investment options;
• Eliminate spin-off considerations when FCUs voluntary merge;  
• Provide parity relief for SEC registration requirements;
• Enable FCUs to place 20 percent of assets in member business loans; and.
• Increase the minimum threshold on member business loans to $100,000.

Chairman Johnson noted these changes would provide a tangible benefit to America ’s consumers by giving them access to more modern, up-to-date and efficient financial institutions. Equally important, an overall improvement in regulatory efficiency would be achieved by removing outmoded, duplicative and unnecessary regulations while maintaining a focus on the primary safety and soundness responsibility that Congress has conferred on the Agency.

The complete text of the testimony is available online at http://www.ncua.gov/news/speeches/speeches.html.

The National Credit Union Administration is the independent federal agency that charters and supervises federal credit unions. NCUA, with the backing of the full faith and credit of the U.S. government, operates the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund (NCUSIF), insuring the savings of nearly 85 million account holders in all federal credit unions and most state-chartered credit unions. NCUA is funded by credit unions, not tax dollars.