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NCUA Discussing Matrix Elimination

September 28, 2007, Alexandria, Va. -- NCUA is working with the National Association of State Credit Union Supervisors (NASCUS) and reaching out to various credit union industry trade groups to discuss possible elimination of the CAMEL Matrix. CAMEL will continue to be NCUA’s internal rating system. NCUA is confining its review to the Matrix, an optional examiner tool in use since 1995. 

The Matrix currently consists of static ratio benchmarks. CAMEL is not an arithmetic score or a comparison to other credit unions of similar asset sizes. An examiner's overall assessment of the credit union is based on numerous factors. As stated in Letter to Credit Unions Number 03-CU-04, "CAMEL is not intended to be used as a report card but as an internal tool to measure risk and allocate resource for supervision purposes."
 
The National Credit Union Administration is the independent federal agency that regulates, charters and supervises federal credit unions. NCUA, backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government, also operates and manages the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund (NCUSIF), insuring the deposits of over 86 million account holders in all federal credit unions and a majority of state-chartered credit unions.