The National Credit Union Administration has formally disclosed its proposed budgets for 2023-24, leaving industry experts concerned about how inflation could impact overall funding.
NCUA officials introduced
Jim Holm, supervisory budget analyst at the NCUA, who presented the new version at the meeting, underscored the widespread impact inflation had on the most current proposal and emphasized the agency's level of spending as compared with rising costs.
"Like all organizations, the economic pressures in the economy right now are impacting our budget across the board [and] we see that in contracted services — probably most directly — but it affects everything that we're planning for. … [It's] important to remember that while the budget has grown, inflation has actually outpaced that budgetary growth over the last five years," Holm said.
Funding for the NCUA's annual budget comes from fees paid by federal credit unions and transfers from the Share Insurance Fund based on a formula called the Overhead Transfer Rate.
Within the suggested forecasts, the NCUA is focusing on increased recruitment of staff tasked with the examination procedures of credit unions across the U.S. as well as boosts for its
Addressing the skepticism regarding the heightened figures, NCUA Chairman Todd Harper took the time to highlight the latest version's 4-percentage-point drop when compared to the 2023 budget that was agreed upon in the agency's meeting last December — while explaining that the original would instead yield an increase of 12.3% if a newer framework is not approved this year.
Harper stressed that much like the credit unions the agency is charged with overseeing, the NCUA is facing increased pressure from inflation on everything from staffing to travel.
"While the credit union system has, to date, largely weathered the COVID-19 pandemic without considerable economic dislocation, we now have new challenges ahead of us due to rising interest rates, increased liquidity risks and ever-evolving cybersecurity threats. … In response, the NCUA must maintain an effective examination and supervision program as the agency navigates this period of economic and market uncertainty and fulfills its consumer financial protection responsibilities," Harper said.
But leaders from the Credit Union National Association, the Virginia Credit Union League and other trade associations in attendance used the open forum to drill down and scrutinize the current spending limits.
Jason Stevrak, deputy chief advocacy officer for CUNA, explained that the proposal comes during a period where credit unions are increasingly pressured by rising operating costs, funding expenses and other
"Most economists believe the
Credit union advocates wary of spending increases asked if the money allocated to the NCUA matches the collective goals of the industry.
"The NCUA budget has increased more than $100 million in 10 years, yet credit unions' core business model has not changed, and new threats cannot account for the full $100 million in increases," said Carrie Hunt, president and chief executive of the Virginia Credit Union League. "We need a real measure of success in order to ensure credit unions' increased investments in the NCUA are being utilized in ways that best represent the interests of credit unions."
The agency will continue its review of the draft and has opened its comment period for garnering additional feedback from industry experts. The comment period on the NCUA's 2023-24 budget is open until Oct. 28.
"We certainly aren't suggesting that safety and soundness should go by the wayside, but it seems to me that the NCUA has a different perspective on what is an acceptable risk profile versus what regulated financial institutions believe, and if we're going to examine and regulate credit union risk down to zero, then they're not going to survive," Hunt said.
