NCUA finalizes safe harbor, other rules, gets ESM update

In addition to issuing 2 proposals, the NCUA board finalized 3 rules at its Friday board meeting, and heard an update on the agency’s Enterprise Solutions Modernization (ESM) program.

The ESM program is a project designed to update NCUA information technology applications and infrastructure.

According to NCUA, its goal is to:

• Provide for more offsite examination and supervision work;
   
• Provide a single entry point for credit unions to conduct business with NCUA; and
   
• Allow NCUA staff ease of access to information they need on a credit union.

Agency staff indicated a request for proposal will be forthcoming on an AIRES replacement solution, a technical foundation for ESM, a central user interface and secure file transfer portal.

The final rules approved are:

• Safe harbor: Updates regulations regarding treatment by the NCUA board, as liquidating agent or conservator, of financial assets transferred by the credit union in connection with a securitization or participation.  Ancillary to this the Board issued a legal opinion ratifying the authority of Federal credit union to issue and sell securities as an authorized incidental power;
   
• Statutory inflation of civil money penalties: Requires federal agencies to adjust the maximum amounts of civil money penalties to account for inflation; and
   
• Freedom of Information Act: Makes minor changes to revise NCUA’s procedures for disclosing records under the act, and for resolving disputes through a public liaison and the Office of Government Information Services.

Additional detail is available on CUNA’s Removing Barriers Blog, and information on the proposals issued at Friday’s meeting is available on CUNA News.