A suite of new systems and software tools that federally insured credit unions and federal and state examiners will use for examinations and their follow-up, and more, was detailed in a Letter to Credit Unions Thursday and reportedly will begin going into use this month.
The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), in the letter from agency Chairman Todd Harper, detailed its implementation of emerging and secure technology that supports the agency’s examination, data collection, field of membership, and reporting efforts. The applications are aimed at streamlining process and procedures and providing “significant benefits” to credit union users, it said. According to the letter, these include:
- NCUA Connect: This is a central interface where credit unions can securely interact with the NCUA. NCUA Connect is the primary entry point for all the new tools.
- Admin Portal: This application provides confirmed, delegated credit union administrative users the ability to manage user access to NCUA Connect and NCUA applications for their organization, including adding new users, removing obsolete users, and resetting passwords.
- Consumer Access Process and Reporting Information System (CAPRIS): Slated to begin operation Aug. 16 (Monday), CAPRIS replaces the agency’s Field of Membership Internet Application (FOMIA). Multiple-common-bond federal credit unions will use this enhanced system to submit FOM expansion requests electronically. CAPRIS will collect the same information as FOMIA but is intended to be easier to use and more efficient. The current FOMIA application will be unavailable after Aug. 12 (Thursday), but FOM requests can be sent from Aug. 13 to Aug. 15 by email to dcamail@ncua.gov.
- Data Exchange Application (DEXA): DEXA is a separate application available on NCUA Connect used strictly as an ingest tool that provides authorized NCUA, state supervisory authority (SSA), and credit union users the ability to securely upload the credit union member loan and share data requested during the examination and supervision process. It provides users with a history of file uploads as well as data validation reports for any files failing the upload process. (It uses the same data schema outlined in NCUA Letter to Credit Unions, 03-CU-05, Expanded AIRES Loan and Share Record Layout, in use for many years.)
- Modern Examination & Risk Identification Tool (MERIT): MERIT replaces the legacy AIRES (Automated Integrated Regulatory Examination System) and will allow examiners to document examination results, generate the report issued to the credit union, and formally follow up on examination concerns. MERIT allows credit unions to upload documents, track outstanding concerns and document resolution progress, and request due date extensions. It also allows the NCUA and SSAs to work jointly together on examinations, the agency said, reducing redundancy, increasing efficiency, and improving communication.
The NCUA, in the letter, said it will provide credit union user training in preparation for the transition to the new systems, including:
- A self-paced training curriculum covering MERIT functionality available through the NCUA’s Learning Management Service.
- An instructional guide describing the Admin Portal functionality to manage users for your credit union and explaining how to access NCUA Connect;
- User guides, FAQs, and support materials for MERIT and DEXA can be found via the NCUA Enterprise Solution Modernization (ESM) Program page;
- A CAPRIS Federal Credit Union Users Guide with detailed steps to access and use the system that will be posted on the NCUA’s website. (The guide will also be available in the Help section of the CAPRIS application.)
- Live webinars with question-and-answer sessions, available by registration. (More details about training sessions for MERIT and CAPRIS and how to view them will be announced as soon as they are available.)
More details on the new tools and links are in Letter 21-CU-08.