Since U.S. Central Federal Credit Union released first-quarter financials that showed only a 23% impairment to member capital accounts, not 63% as reported two weeks earlier, financial managers have debated how to record the evolving losses.

In a Letter to Credit Unions released May 22, the NCUA stressed its original credit loss estimate of a 63% MCA impairment has not changed; rather, "discounting the cash flows from these losses in accordance with GAAP results in a reduction in other-than-temporary-impairment (OTTI) charges to $1.8 billion," the agency stated.

Leigh Philibosian, senior vice president of marketing at the $3 billion Mid-Atlantic Corporate Federal Credit Union, said her institution is "kind of in limbo" over the difference between the two U.S. Central MCA loss figures, because the decision is up to audit firms.