The 2019 budgets for the federal regulator of credit unions, including an operating budget funded by credit unions, will total $334.8 million as a result of action Thursday during the agency’s open board meeting.
Meeting at its headquarters in Alexandria, Va., the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) Board approved the 2019 and 2020 budgets as proposed earlier this fall. The 2019 budgets include an operating budget of $304.4 million; capital budget of $22 million; and National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund (NCUSIF) administrative budget of $8.4 million.
Of the $304.4 million operating budget (which makes up about 90% of the agency’s total budget), 60.5% is allocated to the NCUSIF through the fund’s “overhead transfer rate” (OTR). About 39.9% will be paid by federal credit union operating fees, which NCUA says are rising 2% from 2018. The fees are to be based on total FCU assets at year-end, and NCUA projects 2018 FCU asset growth of 6.2%.
Factoring in costs related to the portion of the budget allocated to the share insurance fund, NCUA says federal credit unions overall will fund 70.5% of the operating budget. The other 29.5% will be funded by federally insured, state-chartered credit unions.
Federal credit unions under $1 million in assets are not assessed operating fees.
In 2020, the NCUA budgets will rise to approximately $343.9 million, including about $316.2 million for the operating budget; $18.6 million capital budget; and $9.1 million NCUSIF administrative budget.
Rendell Jones, the agency’s chief financial officer, said the agency will issue a Letter to Federal Credit Unions, and publish an operating fee calculator online, this month.
Operating fees will invoiced in March and due April 27, NCUA said.