ALEXANDRIA, Va.-Echoing many of NCUA's earlier thoughts on the issue of regulatory relief, Chairman Dennis Dollar has written back to Senate Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) regarding his May 23 request for NCUA's opinion on the matter. "NCUA continues to believe that legislation to reduce regulatory burden will positively impact our ability to provide a safe and sound regulatory environment for America's credit unions in an ever-changing and dynamic financial marketplace," Dollar wrote. Working off the House's version of the Financial Services Regulatory Relief Act of 2003 (H.R. 1375), the chairman said the agency supported allowing federal credit unions to provide wire transfer services to eligible nonmembers in their fields of membership; giving NCUA authority to set loan maturity limits; providing NCUA the authority to set federal credit union's investment limit in credit union service organizations; eliminating the geographic "reasonable proximity" requirements for adding select employee groups; permitting NCUA to determine appropriate investments for credit unions; and providing for voluntary mergers; allowing parity with banks under Securities and Exchange Commission broker/dealer requirements, as well as 28 other technical corrections to the Federal Credit Union Act. These provisions "address statutory restrictions that now act to frustrate the delivery of financial services because of technological advances, current public policy priorities, or market conditions," Dollar explained. He added that many of these changes would provide NCUA with more power to adjust to marketplace conditions, without the time-consuming process of statutory revision. The chairman also stated that many of the other provisions in H.R. 1375 raise no safety and soundness concerns with the agency, including allowing SEGs to remain members of a credit union following community charter conversions; permitting low cost land leases on Federal property for credit unions; excluding member business loans made to non-profit, faith-based organizations from the 12.25% of assets cap; giving credit unions greater governance authority; and exempting credit unions from pre-merger notification requirements. However, Dollar did raise the one issue NCUA has with H.R. 1375: the provision allowing privately insured credit unions to join the Federal Home Loan Bank System. While taking no official position on the substance of the provision, he said that NCUA does object to the appearance of giving NCUA authority over credit unions that are not regulated nor insured by NCUA. "NCUA has not legal authority, regulatory or supervisory jurisdiction over these institutions and organizations, not do we seek it," Dollar wrote. "In the event the Committee chooses to include a similar position authorizing membership to the Federal Home Loan Bank System by privately-insured, state-chartered credit unions, we would strongly argue against the inclusion of any language such as that included in the House bill which requires private insurance providers to submit copies of their annual audit reports to NCUA. In our view, the inclusion of such language can lead to potential consumer confusion and misunderstanding and seems to bring the federal regulatory authority into a role appropriately resting with the state credit union and insurance regulators." Dollar concluded, "Our goal at NCUA, as we implement any regulatory relief provisions the Congress ultimately chooses to enact, will be to take any and all actions with an eye towards removing unnecessary regulatory burden while maintaining, as is proven by the historical strong performance of America's credit unions, our first and foremost priority and commitment to both safety and soundness and necessary regulation to protection the American public." [email protected]