CUNA said on Monday that it's very concerned that the NCUA's budget will increase next year.

“They've got a $251 million agency budget that increased 6.1% last year. It's gone up for the last five years contrary to what the other federal regulators have done,” said Mary Dunn, CUNA senior vice president and deputy general counsel, on a conference call Monday.

“We're very concerned that even though the agency did reduce the budget by $2 million in July, that they're on pace to increase it once again overall for 2014,” she added.

In 2012, the agency's budget was $236 million and rose to $251 million in 2013.

John Fairbanks, NCUA public affairs specialist, confirmed Monday that the agency's budget will be presented at the November board meeting.

(Click on image of this year's budget at left to expand.)

Credit Union Times asked Dunn what CUNA would like to see from the NCUA for its budget for the next fiscal year.

“What we'd like is to see it stay where it is or be rolled back. I think nobody has a crystal ball but I think the fear is – given where we've on the budget – it'll continue to increase,” the CUNA executive said.

“Credit unions have been very careful to contain their own budgets. They've been very careful about monitoring and martialing resources in a way that maximizes their disposable funds in order to serve their members better and they're concerned that their agency just continues to increase its funding,” she added.

Dunn also noted that the number of credit unions has continued to decline while financial performance has improved.