CUNA President/CEO Bill Cheneysaid CUNA remains greatly concerned about the upcoming risk-basedcapital rule from the NCUA, arguing that credit unions areoperating well under the current system.

“Particularly since no one outside of NCUA has seen theproposal, it remains of great concern to us. In our view, thecurrent system for net worth standards (written into the law –unlike that of other financials) is flawed, but credit unions haveadjusted accordingly and are doing well. In short: If it ain'tbroke, don't fix it,” Cheney wrote in the latest edition of TheCheney Report.

Cheney predicted that a risk-based capital rule could beproposed as early as next month.

The 7% capital standard under the Federal Credit Union Act would remain thefloor requirement. However, credit unions with more than $50million in assets could be subject to new requirements.

“The result would be a higher cap for credit unions with higherconcentrations of risky assets,” said NCUA Chairman Debbie Matz inJuly.

Credit Union Times asked Matz about the status of arisk-based capital rule proposal on Thursday after the NCUA'smonthly board meeting.

“This is a very complicated rule and we want to be sure to getit right. The idea will be to risk rate the capital so creditunions that are holding riskier capital on their books will have tohold higher capital levels,” she said.

“It's very complicated. The staff has been working diligently onit and they simply needed more time and we encouraged them to takethe time that they need because we want to make sure they do get itright,” Matz added.

Board Member Michael Fryzel said he expects the rule to come before the board in thefirst quarter of 2014.

See December board meeting on-air interviews withMatz and Fryzel.