NASCUS seeks to offer states’ views of ’22 NCUA budget, OTR at briefing

(Nov. 24, 2021) The state system is seeking to provide its views of the proposed NCUA 2022 budget at the agency’s public briefing in two weeks, particularly the proposed increased in the overhead transfer rate (OTR) – for the third straight year — in the spending plan.

If approved, NASCUS President and CEO Lucy Ito will provide the state system’s perspective at the briefing, scheduled for Dec. 8 at 2 p.m. (and to be live-streamed via the Internet).

The overhead transfer rate (OTR) provides a portion of the funding for NCUA’s “operating budget” of $326 million (which makes up 94.4% of the overall agency budget). For 2022, the OTR will be set at 63.4%, according to the budget papers posted by NCUA. The transfer means that nearly two-thirds of the 2022 operating budget ($206.7 million) will be paid out of the share insurance fund. The remainder of the operating budget comes from “operating fees” paid by federal credit unions.

The OTR represents money that is transferred from NCUSIF to the operating budget of the agency to cover “insurance-related” expenses of the agency. The remainder of the operating budget is covered by the operating fee paid by federal credit unions.

NASCUS President and CEO Lucy Ito pointed out that the proposed 2022 OTR will be the third straight year that an increased transfer rate has been proposed by the agency (at 61.3% in 2020, 62.3% in 2021, and the proposed 63.4% for 2022). She also noted that the number of federally insured, state-chartered credit unions has been declining. At year-end 2019, there were (according to NCUA quarterly call report data) 1,953 FISCUs. By the end of the next year (2020), the number had fallen to 1,914. At mid-year 2021, total FISCUs were 1,886.

Federal credit union (FCU) numbers are also in decline, she noted – but there are still many more of those charters than FISCUs: 3,383 at year-end 2019, 3,185 at year-end 2020, and 3,143 at mid-year 2021.

LINK:

NCUA Posts 2022-2023 Proposed Budget, Sets Dec. 8 Public Briefing