ALEXANDRIA, Va.-Placing a credit union into conservatorship is a very serious decision to make and not one that the NCUA Board has ever taken lightly. According to NCUA Associate General Counsel Allan Meltzer, the reasons in the Federal Credit Union Act for conserving a credit union are "very broad." "There...

ALEXANDRIA, Va.-NCUA reconsidered its previous legal opinion and has stated that federal credit unions may make loans secured by manufactured homes for the same maturities as residential real estate loans if they meet the requirements. Rosemary Hardiman of the Hardiman & Hardiman law firm in Springfield, Va., raised the issue...

WASHINGTON-NCUA's risk-focused examination process has been in effect nearly two years now, and CUNA has decided it is time for the industry to step back and take a look at what it has accomplished. "When NCUA first initiated the risk-focused examination, they indicated that it was going to be a...

WASHINGTON-The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee passed a favorable report last week concerning the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (S.1136) onto the full Senate for consideration. S. 1136, which has no matching bill in the House, would revise certain provisions regarding protections and rights afforded to servicemembers while on active-duty. The bill,...

WASHINGTON-Total bankruptcy filings continue to reach record highs for the third consecutive year as of the end of fiscal year 2003 (ending Sept. 30), the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts recently announced. Bankruptcy filings, at 1,661,996 for this year, have increased 98% since 1994 when there were 837,797. This...

WASHINGTON-Former American Samoan Government Employees Federal Credit Union Manager Bernard Gurr, 50, was sentenced last Friday to 70 months in prison plus three years of supervised release after being convicted of conspiracy, fraud and obstruction. Gurr was also ordered to pay restitution of $29,000 by Chief Judge Thomas F. Hogan...

ALEXANDRIA, Va.-Negotiations on H.R. 2622, the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, are sliding into home as the legislative calendar continues to slip away. According to CUNA Vice President of Legislative Affairs and Senior Legislative Counsel Gary Kohn, the conference committee staff has pretty much wrapped up most of the...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - The NCUA Board tackled three controversial measures in one board meeting last week: the agency's budget, operating fee and overhead transfer rate. In a lengthy discussion of how NCUA arrived at the OTR, Executive Director Len Skiles announced that it proposed lowering the OTR to 59.8% from...