Utah’s regulator latest to earn accreditation
(Dec. 4, 2020) The Utah Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) is the latest state credit union regulator to earn accreditation from NASCUS, the association announced this week. The Utah DFI, which regulates 30 credit unions across the state, earned its accreditation for five years.
The accreditation is the result of a substantive process that includes disciplined self-evaluation, peer review and ongoing monitoring. The process is administered by the NASCUS Performance Standards Committee (PSC) and measures a state regulatory agency’s ability and resources to effectively carry out its regulatory and supervisory programs. A credit union state supervisory agency must demonstrate that it meets standards in agency administration and finance, personnel and training, examination, supervision and legislative powers to earn accreditation.
“Congratulations to the Utah DFI for achieving this distinction,” said NASCUS’ Lucy Ito. “Accreditation is credible evidence of an agency’s capabilities, which also benefits credit unions in the state by providing recognition of the professionalism of a state agency’s regulators, supervisors and staff – and illustrates how a state regulatory agency has met the highest levels of regulatory proficiency.”
More than 85% of state-chartered credit union assets are supervised by NASCUS’ accredited state agencies. The NASCUS Accreditation Program was adopted in 1989 to administer and assure the quality standards of states’ credit union examination and supervision. Modeled on the university accreditation concept, the program applies national standards of performance to a state’s credit union regulatory program.