NCUA to launch post-exam survey pilot Sept. 20 to garner feedback from credit unions

A survey pilot set to launch Monday and administered by the agency’s ombudsman will seek input from credit unions on the agency’s pre-examination, reporting, and post-examination requirements, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) said in a Letter to Federal Credit Unions Wednesday.

In the letter, the agency said the survey will allow credit unions to provide timely feedback to the agency while helping to standardize the feedback process. “Credit union feedback helps the NCUA evaluate the effectiveness of our examination processes, and also improves communication with credit unions,” said the letter from agency Chairman Todd Harper.

During the pilot, set to run from Sept. 20 through March 31 of next year, federal credit union managers or CEOs will receive a link to the post-examination survey from the NCUA’s Ombudsman at the conclusion of a regular examination, the agency said. Credit unions will have 15 days to submit responses. There will be no survey at the conclusion of a follow-up examination or supervision contact, and credit unions are not required to respond to the survey, it said.

“The Ombudsman will administer the collection of survey responses to maintain separation of the survey responses from NCUA staff conducting examination work,” the letter states. “The Ombudsman is responsible for reviewing survey responses, consolidating data from responses, and reporting the results to NCUA leadership. Survey responses will be collected through SurveyMonkey and will generally not be used to evaluate the results of individual examinations.”

The letter says the survey will include five questions focused on pre-examination, reporting, and post-examination requirements; plus an open-ended question that will ask for credit union feedback on the types of questions the agency should consider in a future permanent survey. Three versions of the survey will rotate among credit unions with completed examinations.

The NCUA said the survey should only be submitted once and can be completed by any senior-level employee or official designated by the credit union manager or CEO. It instructs credit unions not to include personally identifiable information in the survey response.

It also said examination disagreements or reports of waste, fraud, or abuse should not be reported through the survey response but that credit unions should refer to the examination report cover letter to learn how to report such concerns.