Director, Office of Examination and Insurance Larry Fazio Hearing on Examining Regulatory Burdens - Regulator Perspectives
Home > News, Media and Events > Director, Office of Examination and Insurance Larry Fazio Hearing on Examining Regulatory Burdens - Regulator Perspectives
Chairman Neugebauer, Ranking Member Clay, and Members of the Committee, the National Credit Union Administration appreciates the invitation to testify about regulatory relief. I am Larry Fazio, Director of NCUA’s Office of Examination and Insurance.
Today, more than three-quarters of credit unions have less than $100 million in assets, and the median asset size of a credit union is $24.5 million.1 As smaller depository institutions, credit unions generally have limited resources available to respond to marketplace, technological, legislative, and regulatory changes. NCUA, therefore, recognizes and acts continually to fine-tune our rules and examinations to remove any unnecessary burden on credit unions.
NCUA scales our regulatory and supervisory expectations to credit union size and complexity. NCUA also seeks to provide broader regulatory relief when it is sensible and within the agency’s authority to do so. Over the past three years, we have taken many actions to cut red tape and provide lasting benefits to credit unions, including relaxing eight regulations and streamlining four processes. This year, we also have already proposed eliminating our fixed-assets rule and modifying the threshold for defining a small credit union to provide special consideration for regulatory relief in future rulemakings. And next week, the NCUA Board will consider a final rule to make it easier for federal credit unions to add new groups to their fields of membership.
Where regulation is needed to protect the safety and soundness of credit unions and the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund, NCUA uses a variety of strategies to ensure our rules are effectively targeted.2 These strategies include fully exempting small credit unions from certain rules, using graduated requirements as size and complexity increase for others, and incorporating practical compliance approaches in agency guidance. Thus, we work to balance maintaining prudential standards with minimizing regulatory burden.
My testimony today will examine the state of the credit union system and the factors contributing to credit union consolidation. I will also outline some of NCUA’s ongoing efforts to support small credit unions. Additionally, I will review elements of NCUA’s current rulemaking process, including recent and prospective efforts to tailor regulation and supervision based on the size and complexity of credit unions, as well as NCUA’s voluntary participation in the current interagency review process under the Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act. I will further discuss NCUA’s efforts to reduce examination burdens. Finally, I will highlight several legislative recommendations to provide regulatory relief for credit unions.