The NCUA plans to withdraw a request to extend its program forthe monthly collection of financial performance and executivecompensation data for large Region 3 federally insured creditunions.

The NCUA had planned to request that the program, which began in2009, be extended and had filed a notice in the Federal Registerlast week seeking comments on the proposal. Data-collectionprograms must be approved by the Office of Management andBudget.

Under the program, the agency collected monthly financial dataand monthly executive and board compensation data from Region 3federally insured credit unions with at least $1 billion inassets.

There are five regions. Region 3 comprises Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana,Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina,Tennessee, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Officials of CUNA and NAFCU said the agency indicated that theywere making the change as a response to requests from the Obamaadministration to reduce reporting requirements when possible.

NCUA Public Affairs Specialist John Zimmerman said theagency changed its mind because the Dodd-Frank financial overhaulbill mandates the collection of such data annually and the agencydidn't need to collect it every month. He added that theagency hadn't heard any complaints from credit unions in Region 3that that the data-collection requirement was burdensome.

The NCUA began the program following the collapse ofEastern Financial Florida CU. The credit union had lost $149.2million in its last two years of operation before the NCUA mergedit into Space Coast CU in June 2009, at a loss of approximately $40million to the NCUSIF.

The NCUA's Office of Inspector General blamed the collapse on extensive investments in collateralized debtobligations, unrealistic growth patterns that went unchecked andthe failure of state and federal examiners to realize the risk ofcertain practices.