Acronyms

AACUC: African American Credit Union Coalition, an non-profit organization of African-American professionals and volunteers in the credit union industry. It was created to increase the strength of the global credit union community.
AACUL: American Association of Credit Union Leagues, the national association representing the collective credit union state Leagues/Associations.
ABS: Asset Backed Security, a security whose value and payments are derived from and collateralized (or backed) by the expected cash flows of pools of income-generating assets. The asset pools may include credit card payments and auto loans, or esoteric cash flows such as aircraft leases, royalty payments and movie revenues.
ACH: Automated Clearing House, the electronic clearing and settlement system used for financial transactions by credit unions and other financial institutions.
AIRES: Automated Integrated Regulatory Examination System, NCUA 25-year-old examination system being replaced by MERIT.
ALCO: Asset/Liability Committee, an asset-liability committee is a supervisory group generally comprised of the senior-management levels of a credit union or other financial institution performing lending.
ALLL: Allowance for Loan & Lease Loss, a methodology of regulatory accounting by which estimated credit losses are calculated.
ALM: Asset/Liability Management, Asset Liability Management is the process of planning, controlling, and monitoring a credit union’s assets, liabilities, and capital to achieve financial goals and control financial risk.
AML: Anti Money Laundering Act, The AMLA is intended to clarify and streamline certain anti: money laundering (AML) and Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) obligations and is intended to strengthen, modernize, and improve compliance programs.
AML/BSA/CFT: The Anti-Money Laundering/Bank Secrecy Act/Combating the Financing of Terrorism, the terms used for the anti-money laundering compliance framework world-wide.
ANPR: Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, a kind of proposed rulemaking, an ANPR is an initial concept draft of a proposed rule used to gather information from public comment. After issuing an ANPR, an agency would then issue a proposed rule.
AOS: Accreditation Online System, an online portal used by NASCUS and CSBS for state and ART completion accreditation reviews.
API: Application Programming Interface, A computing interface that defines interactions between multiple software intermediaries.
ARM: Adjustable-Rate Mortgage, an adjustable-rate mortgage is a home loan with an interest rate that adjusts over time based on the market.
ART: Accreditation Review Team, A team comprised of current and former regulator agency heads responsible for performing Accreditation reviews.
ATR: Ability to Repay, the rule is the part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act that restricts loans to borrowers who are likely to have difficulty repaying them.

BaaS: Banking as a Service, the supplying of complete banking processes that allows brands to easily embed financial services into their products without having to worry about building financial institution infrastructure or obtaining a license.
BOI: Beneficial Ownership Information
BSA: Bank Secrecy Act, the stand-alone term for US Anti-Money Laundering laws and rules.
BTFP: Bank Term Funding Program, a funding program created by the FRB in 2023 to provide 1-year loans to eligible federal insured depository institutions.

CAMELS: Capital-Asset Quality-Management-Earnings-Liquidity-Sensitivity, the rating system NCUA, state credit union regulators, and federal bank regulators use to evaluate the condition of a financial institution.
CBDC: Central Bank Digital Currency, a virtual currency created, and issued, by a country’s central/government bank.
CCIWG: Cybersecurity & Critical Infrastructure Working Group, a permanent working group of the TFOS at FFIEC, promotes coordination across the FFIEC member entities on cybersecurity and critical infrastructure issues, including the development and maintenance of the Cybersecurity Assessment Tool.
CCU: Corporate Credit Union, a corporate credit union, also known as a central credit union, provides services to natural person (consumer) credit unions.
CCUE: Certified Credit Union Executive, The Certified Credit Union Executive (CCUE) designation, instituted in 1975, is the hallmark of professional credit union achievement by CUNA.
CDD: Customer Due Diligence, the requirement under the Bank Secrecy Act rules that a credit union collect identifying information and assess the true risk any individual member presents.
CDFI: Community Development Financial Institution, credit unions that obtain designation and specialize in lending in underserved communities.
CDFI: Community Development Financial Institutions.
CECL: Current Expected Credit Loss, new accounting standard introduced by FASB to replace Allowance for Loan & Lease Losses (ALLL) as the method by which credit losses are estimated.
CFPB: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, federal agency created by the Dodd-Frank Act to oversee consumer compliance regulation.
CFT: Combatting the Financing of Terrorism, another term for BSA/AML focused on restricting the movement of funds to terrorist organizations.
CIP: Customer Identification Program, a requirement for US banks and credit unions to verify the identity of potential customers seeking to open an account.
CLF: Central Liquidity Facility, created by Congress, the CLF is an NCUA operated entity that provides emergency liquidity to credit unions.
CMO Collateralized Mortgage Obligation, a type of mortgage-backed security that contains a pool of mortgages bundled together and sold as an investment. Organized by maturity and level of risk, CMOs receive cash flows as borrowers repay the mortgages that act as collateral on these securities.
CMP: Civil money penalty, the fines regulators impose for violations of rules.
COF: Cost of Funds, the interest rate paid by financial institutions for the funds that they deploy in their business.
CPA: Certified Public Accountant, a professional designation given to qualified accountants.
CPI: Collateral Protection Insurance, Consumer Price Index, measures the overall change in consumer prices over time based on a representative basket of goods and services.
CRA: Community Reinvestment Act, required for banks, while some states also have individual CRA laws in which credit unions and banks must adhere.
CSBS: Conference of State Bank Supervisors, NASCUS’s sister organization, CSBS is the professional association of state bank regulators.
CSCUE: Certified State Credit Union Examiner, a certification through NASCUS formally designating qualified state credit union examiners.
CSCUE-S: Certified State Credit Union Examiner Supervisor, a certification through NASCUS formally designating qualified state credit union examiner supervisors.
CTR: Currency Transaction Report, A currency transaction report (CTR) is a form used in the United States by financial institutions to help prevent money laundering.
CUES: Credit Union Executives Society, CUES is an international membership association for credit unions focused 100% on talent development.
CUMIS: Credit Union Mutual Insurance Society, an insurance solutions provider to Canada’s credit unions delivering competitive financial services, innovative technology solutions, and effective partnerships.
CUNA: Credit Union National Association, the largest trade association in the credit union industry.
CUSO: Credit Union Service Organization, an organization that is owned by credit unions in whole or in part that provides permitted financial services and/or operational services primarily to credit unions or members of credit unions.
CVC: Convertible virtual currency, the technical names for virtual currencies such as crypto currencies.

DEI: Diversity Equity & Inclusion.
DLT: Distributed ledger technology,k.a the blockchain, the system of dispersed computers (nodes) that work in harmony to verify an algorithm identifying a virtual transaction of some kind.
DOR: Document of Resolution, issued by an examiner to document agreements reached with a credit union on reducing unacceptable material risks.

ECIP: Emergency Capital Investment Program, a U.S. Treasury program created to support eligible mission-driven institutions in their lending to financially underserved borrowers and communities (CDFI, LICU institutions)
EFT: Electronic Funds Transfer, the electronic transfer of money over an online network and can be performed between the same credit union or a different one, and can be accomplished with several different types of payment systems.
EIDV: Electronic Identity Verification, uses both public and private databases in order to identify whether an individual is who they claim to be, in order to minimize fraud.
EIN: Employer Identification Number, An Employer Identification Number (EIN) is a unique number assigned to a business for easy IRS identification for tax reporting purposes.
ESG: Environmental, Social, Governance, a framework to evaluate whether corporations are acting responsibly.

FASB: Financial Accounting Standards Board, established in 1973, FASB is the body that establishes GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) that govern accounting in the business world.
FBIIC: Financial & Banking Information Infrastructure Committee, created after 9/11, and chaired by the Treasury Department, the FBIIC was created to coordinate among state and federal financial regulators to ensure nationwide incident response to emergencies and threats against the financial sector are identified and mitigated. NASCUS is a member of the FBIIC.
FCRA: Fair Credit Reporting Act, a federal law that regulates the collection of consumers’ credit information and access to their credit reports and was passed in 1970 to address the fairness, accuracy, and privacy of the personal information contained in the files of the credit reporting agencies.
FDIC: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, provides deposit insurance for banks.
FFIEC: The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, an interagency coordinating body of the federal and state bank regulators to develop uniform principles, standards, and report forms to promote uniformity in the supervision of financial institutions. NASCUS is a member of the FFIEC through the State Liaison Committee.
FHA: Federal Housing Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and they provide mortgage insurance on loans made by FHA-approved lenders.
FHLB: Federal Home Loan Bank, 11 regionally based, wholesale suppliers of lendable funds to financial institutions of all sizes and many types, including community banks, credit unions, commercial and savings banks, insurance companies and community development financial institutions.
FHLMC: Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac), Freddie Mac is an alternative name for the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, or FHLMC. Freddie Mac was created in 1970 as part of the Emergency Home Finance Act to expand the secondary mortgage market in the United States.
FICU: Federally Insured Credit Union, a credit union with federal share insurance.
FinCEN: Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, the office in the US Treasury Department that implements and regulates BSA/AML/CFT compliance in the US.
FISCU: Federally Insured State Chartered Credit Union, a credit union chartered by a state regulator and insured by NCUA.
FNMA: Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), The Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA), typically known as Fannie Mae, is a government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) founded in 1938 by Congress during the Great Depression as part of the New Deal. It was established to stimulate the housing market by making more mortgages available to moderate- to low-income borrowers.
FOM: Field of membership, the qualifying characteristics of individuals eligible to join a particular credit union.
FPR: Financial Performance Report, A report that provides a financial summary for a credit union, including assets, liabilities & capital, and income & expense.
FRB: Federal Reserve Board, the Central Bank of the United States.
FTC: Federal Trade Commission, a federal regulatory agency designed to monitor and prevent anticompetitive, deceptive or unfair business practices.

GAAP: Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, the standardized rules of accounting for publicly traded companies and many other regulated entities.

HMDA: Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, an act which requires many financial institutions to maintain, report, and publicly disclose loan-level information about mortgages.

IRR: Interest Rate Risk, refers to the vulnerability of a credit union’s financial condition to adverse movements in market interest rates and is one of the 7 risk areas reviewed during an examination which include credit risk, liquidity risk, transaction risk, strategic risk, reputation risk, compliance risk.
ICO: Initial Coin Offering, a type of fundraising which uses cryptocurrency. Companies or projects sell cryptocurrency or ‘tokens’ to investors in exchange for money, with the hope that the token will have more value in future.
IPO: Initial Public Offering, an initial selling of securities to the public in the primary market.

JSWG: Joint Supervisory Working Group, A working group comprised of appointed state credit union regulator agency heads and select NCUA staff for the purpose of state advocacy and collaboration among state and federal credit union regulators.

KYC: Know Your Customer, another term for CIP & CDD, the mandatory process of identifying and verifying the client’s identity when opening an account and periodically over time understanding who they are from a transaction history perspective.
KPI: Key Performance Indicator, a type of performance measurement. An organization may use KPIs to evaluate its success, or to evaluate the success of a particular activity in which it is engaged.

LIBOR: London Inter Bank Offer Rate, these are benchmarked interest rates for many adjustable rate mortgages, business loans, and financial instruments traded on global financial markets.
LICU: Low Income Credit Union, a credit union serving predominately persons qualifying as “low-income members”.
LTV: Loan-to-Value, an assessment of lending risk that financial institutions and other lenders examine before approving a loan including mortgage loans and vehicle loans.
LUA: Letter of Understanding and Agreement, a supervisory tool whereby a credit union agrees to take corrective action, or cease certain actions, in response to supervisory findings and/or concerns.

MBS: Mortgage Backed Security, a security backed by government guaranteed mortgage loans.
MDI: Minority Depository Institution, a federally insured credit union (or bank) whose membership is 50% Asian American, Black American, Hispanic American, or Native American; or 50% of members and potential members and board is Asian American, Black American, Hispanic American, or Native American.
MERIT: Modern Examination & Risk Identification Tool, NCUA’s new examination system replacing AIRES.
MFA: Multi-factor Authentication, a type of security system that requires a user to verify their identity through more than one method of authentication.
MOU: Memorandum of Understanding, a document describing the broad outlines of an agreement that two or more parties have reached. Many state credit union agencies sign these to promote cooperation with federal agencies.
MRA: Matters Requiring Attention
MRB: Marijuana Related Business-businesses providing services with any touchpoint on marijuana related activity.

NACHA: National Automated Clearing House Association, an association which manages the development, administration, and governance of the ACH Network, the backbone for the electronic movement of money and data in the United States.
NAFCU: National Association of Federally Insured Credit Unions, a trade association in the credit union industry.
NASCUS: the National Association of State Credit Union Supervisors, the professional association of the state regulators and state credit union system.
NCO: Net Charge Offs, the amount representing the difference between gross charge-offs and recoveries of delinquent debt. Net charge-offs are the debt owed to a credit union unlikely to be recovered by that credit union.
NCUA: National Credit Union Administration, an independent federal agency created by the United States Congress to regulate, charter, and supervise federal credit unions.
NCUSIF: National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund, a federal fund created by Congress in 1970 to insure deposits in member credit unions. Administered by the National Credit Union Administration, the NCUSIF insures deposits up to $250,000 for every individual depositor.
NEC: National Examination Committee, group chartered by NCUA to review examiner guidance to ensure it is clear and comprehensive, Identify any conflicts, inconsistencies, or inaccuracies between examiner guidance, tools, training, and policy; evaluate regional and emerging issues to determine if changes to national policies, programs, or systems need consideration, and provide feedback and recommend adjustments to the NCUA examination and supervision program.
NEV: Net Economic Value, measured by calculating the present value of assets minus the present value of liabilities, plus or minus the present value of the expected cash flows on off-balance sheet instruments (such as some interest rate derivatives).
NSF: Non-Sufficient Funds, the term used when the holder of a checking account is overdrawn (meaning there is not enough money in the account to pay the check written against it.)
NW: Net Worth, the retained earnings balance of the credit union at quarter end as determined under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).

OCC: Office of the Comptroller of Currency, an independent bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury federal agency led by the Comptroller of the Currency that charters, regulates, and supervises all national banks and federal savings associations as well as federal branches and agencies of foreign banks.
OFAC: Office of Foreign Asset Control, the office in the Treasury Department that administers the US sanctions programs.
OFN: Opportunity Finance Network: is a leading national network of more than 370 community development financial institutions (CDFIs) nationwide.
ONES: Office of National Examination & Supervision, the NCUA office that examines credit unions with $10b or more in assets and corporate credit unions.
OREO: Other Real Estate Owned, is an accounting term that refers to real estate property assets that a credit union holds, but that are not part of its business, and these assets are acquired due to foreclosure proceedings.
OTTI: Other-Than-Temporary-Impairment, an impairment charge taken on a security whose fair value has fallen below the carrying value on balance sheet and its value is not expected to recover through the holding period of the security.

P2P: Peer-to-Peer, A decentralized platform where two individuals interact directly with each other, without intermediation by a third party. Instead, the buyer and the seller transact directly with each other via the P2P service.
PaaS: Platform as a Service, a cloud computing model whereby an external company provides an organization with a platform and an environment which allows them to build applications and services over the internet. PaaS gives developers the tools and services required for code to be deployed efficiently. They are designed to avoid the cost and complexity of building and maintaining the platform themselves.
PCA: Prompt Corrective Action, a statutory and regulatory framework that requires credit unions to maintain prescribed levels of net worth or face mandatory enforcement actions.
PIC: Paid-In-Capital as it relates to corporate credit unions
PICU: Privately Insured Credit Union, a state-chartered credit union with private insurance, not federally insured by NCUA.
PIN: Personal Identification Number, a confidential individual code used by a cardholder to authenticate card ownership for ATM.
PMI: Private Mortgage Insurance, a type of mortgage insurance you might be required to pay for if you have a conventional loan.
POS: Point-of-Sale, the specific time and place where a retail transaction is completed.
PSC: Performance Standards Committee, the oversight committee for NASCUS Accreditation comprised of current credit union state regulators responsible for determining status of accredited states and overall program supervision.
PV: Present Value, the value in the present of a sum of money, in contrast to some future value it will have when it has been invested at compound interest.

RD: Regional Director, the NCUA top staffer in each of 3 NCUA geographical zones (East, South, and West) that administers NCUA’s examination and supervision program or federally insured
RESPA: Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, a 1974 law which provides consumers with improved disclosures of settlement costs and to reduce the costs of closing by the elimination of referral fees and kickbacks.
ROAA: Return on Average Assets, an indicator used to assess the profitability of a firm’s assets, and it is most often used by financial institutions to gauge financial performance.
ROE: Report of Examination, the report given to the credit union after it is examined.

SAR: Suspicious Activity Report, the report credit unions files with the government when they suspect a transaction is related to illegal activity.
SBA: Small Business Administration, created in 1953, the SBA provides counseling, capital, and contracting expertise for small businesses.
SCU: State credit union, a credit union chartered by the state whose prudential regulator is the state credit union regulator.
SEC: Securities and Exchange Commission, The Securities and Exchange Commission oversees securities exchanges, securities brokers and dealers, investment advisors, and mutual funds in an effort to promote fair dealing, the disclosure of important market information, and to prevent fraud.
SEG: Select Employer Group groups can share any common bond of association or occupation, not just a single employer.
SEQ: Self-Evaluation Questionnaire, A questionnaire used by agencies to self evaluate performance in several areas such as operations, personnel, training, examination, and legislative authority; also used by the Accreditation Review Team to determine whether the agency meets peer standards set by the Performance Standards Committee; Common acronym used by CSBS to identify the questionnaire; interchangeable title with SERA.
SERA: Self-Evaluation for Re-Accreditation, A questionnaire used by agencies to self-evaluate performance in several areas such as operations, personnel, training, examination, and legislative authority; also used by the Accreditation Review Team to determine whether the agency meets peer standards set by the Performance Standards Committee; common acronym used by NASCUS to identify the questionnaire; interchangeable title with SEQ.
SIRRT: Supervisory Interest Rate Risk Threshold, for credit unions in the asset cohort of $10 million to $50 million, the proposed and final rules rely on the SIRRT ratio as a reliable indicator of IRR concentration: (Total first mortgages held + total investments with maturities greater than 5 years)/Total Net Worth

SIPPS: State Issues & Policy Professionals.

SLC: State Liaison Committee, an FFIEC Committee which includes representatives from NASCUS, CSBS, and the American Council of State Savings Supervisors (ACSSS), who each appoint one member. The Council elects two of the five members of the SLC.
SSA: State Supervisory Authority, another name for the state credit union regulatory agencies.

TARP Troubled Asset Relief Program: instituted by the U.S. Treasury following the 2008 financial crisis. TARP stabilized the financial system by having the government buy mortgage: backed securities and bank stocks.
TFCC: The Task Force on Consumer Compliance, an FFIEC Task force that promotes policy coordination, a common supervisory approach, and uniform enforcement of consumer protection laws and regulations.”
TFEE: Task Force on Examiner Education, oversees the FFIEC’s examiner education program on behalf of the Council and promotes interagency education through timely, cost-efficient, state-of- the-art training programs for federal and state examiners and agency staff
TFIS: Task Force on Information Sharing, an FFIEC task force which promotes and facilitates the sharing (collection, exchange, and access) of electronic information among the FFIEC members in support of the supervision, regulation, and deposit insurance responsibilities of financial institution regulators
TFOR: Task Force on Reports, an FFIEC task force helps to develop interagency uniformity in the reporting of periodic information that is needed for effective supervision and other public policy purposes.
TFOS: Task Force on Supervision, coordinates and oversees matters relating to safety-and-soundness supervision and examination of depository institutions. It provides a forum for Council members to promote quality, consistency, and effectiveness in examination and other supervisory practices.
TILA: Truth in Lending Act, protects consumers against inaccurate and unfair credit billing and credit card practices and requires lenders to provide loan cost information in order for a consumer comparison shop for certain types of loans.
TISA: Truth in Savings Act, designed to enable consumers to make informed decisions about accounts and requires financial institutions to provide to consumers disclosures about terms and costs of deposit accounts and imposes requirements for deposit account advertisements.

UCC: Uniform Commercial Code, is a comprehensive set of laws governing all commercial transactions in the United States. It is not a federal law, but a uniformly adopted state law. Uniformity of law is essential in this area for the interstate transaction of business.

WAL: Weighted Average Life, is the average length of time that each dollar of unpaid principal on a loan, a mortgage, or an amortizing bond remains outstanding. Calculating WAL shows an investor, an analyst, or a portfolio manager how many years it will take to receive roughly half of the amount of the outstanding principal. The formula is useful in measuring the credit risk associated with fixed-income securities.
WOOCU: World Council of Credit Unions, Advocates internationally to achieve better legislative and regulatory outcomes for credit unions, other cooperative financial institutions and their members.