CREIT UNION TIMES Vol. 11, No. 44 November 1, 2000 Looking back four years ago finds NCUA authorizing an independent study of the overhead transfer rate in 2001 before setting the 2002 rate. At its October board meeting, NCUA increased the overhead transfer rate to 66.72%, up from its historical 50%, which has state chartered credit unions upset about decreased dividends from the fund going toward activities that regulators should already be involved in. "All we can do is wait until the independent study comes in," said CUNA Senior Vice President of Research/Policy Analysis and Chief Economist Bill Hampel. "We believe it was premature to raise the overhead transfer rate the way they did but NCUA holds the purse strings there and there's basically no oversight of their budget. We think this does tie into the broader issue of the NCUA's budget." That issue also finds CUNA working hard to ensure passage of meaningful pension reform legislation with a $7,915 (plus in-house art work) ad campaign. The ads ran in the CQ Daily Monitor and the National Journal's Congress Daily. "One reason we did this is like bankruptcy there are a lot of folks out there who are maybe not as supportive of IRA/pensions reform thinking this is mainly for the securities industry and large banks," said CUNA VP of Political Action/ Grassroots Richard Gose. "In fact, about 97% of America's credit unions can benefit from these changes."