NCUA call reports will include shorter form for smaller credit unions

<p>ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Credit unions with assets of less than $10 million will be given a shorter call report form they can use to file their first and third quarter call reports under the rule mandating that all credit unions file quarterly call reports. The NCUA Board announced the new policy when it approved the final version of the mandatory quarterly call reporting for all credit unions at the March NCUA Board meeting. Board Chairman Dennis Dollar praised the innovation that, he said, will allow the agency to move forward with its risk based examination schedules and risk based exams and not overly burden small credit unions. David Marquis, Director of NCUA’s Office of Examination and Insurance said that the new form had been drafted to require smaller credit unions to share information they would have to collect for their own record keeping anyway. The information will include balance sheet information, information about investments and other routine data. Marquis said the new form still had to be reviewed under the Paperwork Reduction Act but that it would be available in time for the September call report. (That is the first one where it will be used.) Dollar spoke about the change that had occurred among credit unions surrounding this issue and indicated that he had had a change of heart about the matter. Dollar told the meeting of how he had been a credit union CEO the last time the issue of requiring quarterly call reports from all credit unions came up and how the “hue and cry” from credit unions about the issue had been very loud. “I came to the Board, as you well know with some reservation whether the benefit of this would outweigh the additional paperwork costs in time and effort for smaller credit unions.” Dollar described his change of heart on the matter as a “coming of age” enabled by his having had to look at the issue “from both sides now.” Dollar said his thinking changed when reflected on the fact that, as a credit union CEO he would not have approved a loan application based on six-month-old credit information. “When you make risk based decisions, which is what approving a loan is,” Dollar said, “you have to make the them on the current information available.” Dollar added that the events of last year, particularly September 11, had highlighted the need for the agency to have access to the most up to date data as possible. Dollar said that the increased data would be essential for the agency to make the shift to risk based examination scheduling and examinations. He also pointed to the future when, he said, the agency might be able to do even more of the exam off site entirely. The Chairman said credit unions have also changed their minds on the issue, comparing the “60 some odd” comments the agency received on the issue this year, and the 44 of those that supported the agency, with the outcry which had arisen the last time the topic came up.</p>