MONTREAL – The NCUA’s proposals on risk based capital haveraised concerns among credit unions, trade associations and evenmembers of Congress. Earlier this month, the Congressional bill H.R. 2769 was introduced (informallyknown as the “stop and study bill”), which directs the NCUA toreevaluate its proposed RBC rule and justify its merits, as well asexplain the agency’s authority to impose this directive on thecredit unions it regulates.

CUNA and NAFCU agree that the RBC rule, both in its currentiteration and the revised version that has fallen underCongressional scrutiny (RBC2), still raises significant concern forcredit unions. However, while NAFCU strongly supports the stop and study bill, calling it a crucialelement of giving RBC2 the scrutiny it deserves, CUNA President/CEOJim Nussle deemed it remote, according to the contents of aconfidential email from CUNA President/CEO Jim Nussle to leagueexecutives obtained by CU Times.

“When the RBC2 proposal was issued earlier this year, we gave alot of consideration to pursuing a legislative strategyandconcluded that the second round of the rulemaking was not thebest time to engage Congress,” Nussle wrote in the June 18 email.“We concluded at that time that the challenges facing legislationwith broad Congressional support are significant, making theprospect of enacting a bill like this remote, particularly beforethe rule is final.”