NCUA Board Member Rick Metsger told Credit Union TimesThursday the proposed risk-based capital rule demonstrates theNCUA's agency independence, because it did not wait for Congress toact on the issue.

In advance of the January 23 board meeting, both NAFCU and CUNAsaid any risk-based capital requirement should come from Congressrather than the NCUA.

Metsger said only a handful of credit unions would have to raisemore capital under the new rule.

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A risk-based calculator released by the NCUA on Thursday provides creditunions with an overview of their capital ratio and PromptCorrective Action category under both the current rule and theproposed regulation. The capital figures are visible to the publicas well as credit unions.

“With the tool that has been created … that will be anincentive for them, not only a requirement, but also an incentiveto get their house in order, as over 90% of federal credit unionsalready have,” Metsger said. “Any credit unions will be able to goon, put the name of their credit union in and all the 5300 calldata has been all put together so they can instantly see whether(they) are well capitalized or not,” Metsger said.

The board member also said the calculator can assure themajority of credit unions they are considered well capitalized bythe NCUA.

“To those that need some work, I don't think that will be asurprise to them, but it will certainly give them a heads up thatthey need to get their balance sheet in order,” he added.

In the video interview, Metsger also predicted that the numberof late call report filers will drop significantly after the NCUA'sdecision to impose penalties against credit unions that missthe deadline.

“Back in December, we established a new policy beginning thiscall report, in which credit unions will have approximately fivemore days to file their reports than they have in the past. So theyget the additional five days that was added to the pre-existingstatus so there's no excuse to be late,” Metsger said.