The NCUA adopted key new rules in 2013 concerning liquidity,CUSOs and fixed assets.

The liquidity rule, approved at the NCUA's October boardmeeting, requires federally insured credit unions with more than$50 million in assets to adopt a contingency funding plan toaddress liquidity shortfalls during emergency situations.

FICUs with fewer than $50 million in assets have to maintain abasic written policy that provides a credit union board-approvedframework for managing liquidity.

Credit unions with assets fewer than $50 million also have toprovide a list of liquidity sources that can be employed underadverse circumstances, according to the board action memorandumpresented at the agency's October board meeting.

Under the final rule, FICUs with more than $250 million inassets are required to have access to a backup liquidity source foremergency situations from the NCUA's Central Liquidity Facility orthe Federal Reserve's discount window.

Credit unions in this asset category must apply with eitherliquidity source by March 31, 2014, to be in compliance with therule.

“This is to make sure that in a downturn or if a credit unionhas an adverse event, that they will be able to access liquidityvery quickly. It protects the credit union and it protects thesystem,” NCUA Chairman Debbie Matz said.

In 2013, the NCUA also increased the definition of small creditunions from $10 million in assets $50 million, which also impactedthe liquidity rule.

The board also finalized a CUSO rule at the November meeting,which expands the NCUA's ability to examine CUSO financials andother organization details. The rule also requires federallyinsured state-chartered credit unions to comply.

“The final rule also includes limits on the ability of less thanadequately capitalized FISCUs to recapitalize their CUSOs. Inaddition, it adds several new requirements that apply to bothfederal credit unions and FISCUs. Specifically, all CUSOs arerequired to annually provide basic profile information to NCUA andthe appropriate state supervisory authority,” according to the NCUAboard action memorandum.

“CUSOs engaging in certain complex or high-risk activities arerequired to additionally report more detailed information,including audited financial statements and customer information.The final rule also requires all subsidiary CUSOs to followapplicable laws and regulations.”

The NCUA's 2014 budget included a total of $750,000 for systemdevelopment costs to implement the CUSO rule.

Costs in 2015 to finalize development, which include systemdocumentation, training, acceptance testing, and other systemdeployment costs, are estimated to be no more than $650,000,according the NCUA.

“This estimate will be refined in part based on actual costs andprogress of system development in 2014 and considered by the Boardas part of the annual budget development process for 2015,” theagency said at the meeting.

Under a fixed asset rule finalized in September, any waiver ofthe 5% aggregate limit on fixed assets is considered a one-timeevent by the NCUA.

“An FCU with an approved waiver will be required to submit a newwaiver request and supporting documentation for any futureinvestment in fixed assets which exceeds an additional one percentof its shares and retained earnings over the amount approved,” theNCUA said in its board action memorandum.

The NCUA board also approved a final rule at the January boardmeeting that would allow the federal regulator to declare a stateregulated, federally insured credit union to be in “troubledcondition,” which was previously an authority only granted to stateregulators.

A final rule expanding the maximum threshold for rural districtfield of membership populations to 250,000 from the existing200,000 maximum was also approved in February.