NCUA budgets far fewer exam hours than FDIC: inspector general

Credit unions have a much easier time with exams, according to a report by the National Credit Union Administration’s inspector general.

Details: As reported by Regulatory Report, the NCUA Office of Inspector General conducted an audit to determine the NCUA’s effectiveness in budgeting audit hours. The audit showed:

• For CAMELS 1 rated institutions with less than $50 million in assets, the NCUA budgeted 15% of the average number of actual hours the FDIC used to examine comparable asset-sized banks from 2018 through 2020.

• For CAMELS 1 rated institutions with $500 million to $1 billion in assets, the NCUA budgeted 38% of the average actual hours the FDIC used to examine banks of this asset size.

• In 2023, the OIG’s testing of NCUA exam hours showed just a 2.2% difference between budgeted hours and actual hours expended.

Shallow NCUA Exams: ICBA has publicized last year’s comments from NCUA Chairman Todd Harper that the agency is the only financial services regulator that doesn’t do a “deep dive” exam on compliance with federal consumer protection laws.

Public Opinion: ICBA earlier this year released polling that showed 68% of adults said credit union customers should have the same Community Reinvestment Act protections that banks provide and 73% said credit union customers should have the same levels of protection against illegal discrimination as bank customers.

Grassroots Resources: Community bankers can use ICBA’s Be Heard grassroots action center to call on members of Congress to hold a hearing on credit union policy. Additional resources are available on the ICBA website.