Regulatory Publication and Voluntary Review as Contemplated by the Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act of 1996

NATIONAL CREDIT UNION ADMINISTRATION <CFR>12 CFR Chapter VII</CFR> <DEPDOC>[NCUA-2024-0014]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Regulatory Publication and Voluntary Review as Contemplated by the Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act of 1996</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> National Credit Union Administration (NCUA). <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Notification of regulatory review; request for comments. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> As contemplated by the Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act of 1996 (EGRPRA), the NCUA Board (Board) is voluntarily reviewing agency regulations to identify rules that are outdated, unnecessary, or unduly burdensome on federally insured credit unions. The NCUA is not statutorily required to undertake the EGRPRA review; however, the Board has elected to participate in the decennial review process. The NCUA divided its regulations into 10 categories outlined in the included chart. Over the next 2 years, the NCUA will publish four <E T="04">Federal Register</E> documents each requesting comment on multiple categories of regulations. This first <E T="04">Federal Register</E> document requests comment on regulations concerning the following two categories: “Applications and Reporting,” and “Powers and Activities.” The NCUA will address the remaining eight categories in the next three documents. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Comments must be received by August 21, 2024. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> You may submit written comments by any of the following methods (Please send comments by one method only): • <E T="03">Federal eRulemaking Portal:</E> <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov.</E> The docket number for this document is NCUA-2024-0014. Follow the instructions for submitting comments. A plain language summary of the document is also available on the docket website. • <E T="03">Mail:</E> Address to Melane Conyers-Ausbrooks, Secretary of the Board, National Credit Union Administration, 1775 Duke Street, Alexandria, Virginia 22314-3428. • <E T="03">Hand Delivery/Courier:</E> Same as mailing address. <E T="03">Public inspection:</E> You may view all public comments on the Federal eRulemaking Portal at <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov,</E> as submitted, except for those we cannot post for technical reasons. The NCUA will not edit or remove any identifying or contact information from the public comments submitted. If you are unable to access public comments on the internet, you may contact the NCUA for alternative access by calling (703) 518-6540 or emailing <E T="03">OGCMail@ncua.gov.</E> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Pamela Yu, Special Counsel to the General Counsel, Office of General Counsel, at the above address or telephone (703) 518-6540. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Introduction</HD> Congress enacted section 2222 of the EGRPRA  <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> to reduce regulatory burden imposed upon insured depository institutions consistent with safety and soundness, to promote consistency between the Federal banking agencies' regulations, and to support consumer protection. The statute requires that not less frequently than once every 10 years, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC), <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> along with the Federal banking agencies, <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> conduct a review of their regulations to identify outdated or otherwise unnecessary regulatory requirements imposed on insured depository institutions. In conducting this review, the FFIEC or the appropriate Federal banking agencies (Office of the Comptroller of the Currency [OCC], Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System [FRB], and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation [FDIC]; herein Agencies  <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> ) shall (a) categorize their regulations by type and (b) at regular intervals, provide notice and solicit public comment on categories of regulations, requesting commenters to identify areas of regulations that are outdated, unnecessary, or unduly burdensome. <SU>5</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>  12 U.S.C. 3311. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>  The FFIEC is an interagency body empowered to prescribe uniform principles, standards, and report forms for the Federal examination of financial institutions and to make recommendations to promote uniformity in the supervision of financial institutions. The FFIEC does not issue regulations. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>  The FFIEC is composed of the OCC, FRB, FDIC, NCUA, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and State Liaison Committee. Of these, only the OCC, FRB, and FDIC are statutorily required to undertake the EGRPRA review. The NCUA Board elected to participate in the first and second EGRPRA reviews and again has elected to participate in this review process. Consistent with its approach during the first and second EGRPRA reviews, the NCUA is issuing documents and requests for comment on its rules separately. The CFPB is required to review its significant rules and publish a report of its review no later than 5 years after they take effect. <E T="03">See</E> 12 U.S.C. 5512(d). This process is separate from the EGRPRA process. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>  The Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) was still in existence at the time EGRPRA was enacted and was included in the listing of Agencies. Since that time, the OTS has been eliminated and its responsibilities have passed to the Agencies and the CFPB. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>5</SU>  Federally insured credit unions are also subject to regulations that are not reviewed under this decennial review process because they were not promulgated by the NCUA. Examples include rules for which rulemaking authority was transferred to the CFPB and anti-money laundering and Bank Secrecy Act regulations issued by the Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, among others. If, during this decennial review process, the NCUA receives a comment about a regulation that is not subject to NCUA review, it will forward that comment to the appropriate agency. </FTNT> The NCUA is not statutorily required to undertake the EGRPRA review because the NCUA is not an “appropriate Federal banking agency” as specified in EGRPRA. In keeping with the spirit of the law, however, the NCUA Board has once again elected to participate in the decennial review process. Accordingly, the NCUA has participated along with the Agencies in the planning process but has developed its own regulatory categories that are comparable with those developed by the Agencies. Because of the unique circumstances of federally insured credit unions and their members, the Board is issuing a separate document from the Agencies. The NCUA's document is consistent and comparable with the Agencies' document, except on issues that are unique to credit unions. EGRPRA also requires the FFIEC or the Agencies to publish in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> a summary of the comments received, identifying significant issues raised and commenting on these issues. It also directs the Agencies to eliminate unnecessary regulations to the extent that such action is appropriate. Finally, the statute requires the FFIEC to submit to Congress a report that summarizes any significant issues raised in the public comments and the relative merits of those issues. The report also must include an analysis of whether the Agencies are able to address the regulatory burdens associated with such issues or whether these burdens must be addressed by legislative action. The FFIEC report submitted to Congress following the prior EGRPRA reviews included a section discussing the Agencies and banking sector issues and a separate section devoted to the NCUA and credit union issues. It is likely that the FFIEC will follow a similar approach in this third EGRPRA review and report process. Per the objectives of the decennial review, the Board asks the public to identify areas of the NCUA's regulations that are outdated, unnecessary, or unduly burdensome. In addition to this initial document, the Board will issue three more documents for comment over the course of the next 2 years, at regular intervals. The decennial review supplements and complements the reviews of regulations that the NCUA conducts under other laws and its internal policies. <SU>6</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>6</SU>  Interpretive Ruling and Policy Statement (IRPS) 87-2, 52 FR 35231 (Sept. 8, 1987) as amended by IRPS 03-2, 68 FR 32127 (May 29, 2003) (Reflecting the NCUA's commitment to “periodically update, clarify and simplify existing regulations and eliminate redundant and unnecessary provisions.”). </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. The Decennial Review's Targeted Focus</HD> The decennial regulatory review provides a significant opportunity for the public and the Board to consider groups of related regulations and identify possibilities for streamlining and improvement. The decennial review's overall focus on the totality of regulations will offer a new perspective in identifying opportunities to update and even streamline regulations. For example, the decennial review may facilitate the identification of regulatory requirements that are no longer consistent with the way credit union business is conducted and that, therefore, might be eliminated. Of course, regulatory updates must be compatible with ensuring the continued safety and soundness of federally insured credit unions and the financial system as a whole and with the consumer financial protections. Any resulting regulatory modifications from the NCUA's decennial review must also be consistent with the NCUA's statutory mandates, many of which require the issuance of regulations. EGRPRA recognizes that effective burden reduction ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 62k characters. 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