Federal credit unions’ (FCUs) operating fees and all federally insured credit unions’ (FICUs’) 1% share insurance deposit adjustments will be invoiced in March and due to be paid no later than April 15, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) said in a letter Wednesday to FCUs.
The NCUA has an online calculator FCUs can use to calculate their 2021 operating fees. According to Wednesday’s letter, FCU operating fees will be 19.6% lower, on average, than in 2020 due to decisions made by the board in December, the agency said.
FCUs with $1 million or less in assets, based on the agency’s methodology for calculating those, will continue to be assessed no operating fee for 2021, the agency said.
The NCUA has an operating budget of $314.56 million in 2021, and 37.7% of that figure will be funded through the FCU operating fees. The remaining 62.3% will come from the share insurance fund, according to the board’s action memorandum on the budget.
The operating fees planned for 2021 are influenced by several factors, among them: changes in the method for calculating total assets for purposes of the fee calculation approved by the NCUA Board in December; changes in the treatment of the agency’s capital budget and miscellaneous revenues, also approved in December; and a 1% increase in the portion of the budget funded through the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund (NCUSIF) fund’s overhead transfer rate (to 62.3%).
The board in December revised its rule for determining total assets used as the basis for calculating the operating fee by excluding Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans and using the average of the four quarters of call report data available at the time the board approves the annual budget (the four quarters ending Sept. 30) to compute total assets. (Previously, the agency used projected fourth-quarter total assets.)
The NCUA, in its letter Wednesday, said all FICUs are encouraged to participate in the Pay.gov direct debit program for the payment of operating fees and NCUSIF 1% deposit adjustments. Those not using Pay.gov should follow instructions provided in the invoice, the agency said.