Recent Comment Calls

CUNA
May 15, 2008 | COMMENTS

NCUA Proposed Revisions to the FOIA and Privacy Act Rules

The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) Board approved a proposed rule that will make a number of changes in how the public may access agency information under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), as well as changes to the rules regarding the Privacy Act, which safeguards certain personal information of individuals that is collected by federal agencies.

For the FOIA rules, the NCUA Board proposes changes to facilitate submissions of FOIA requests, how requests must be addressed, and the information that must be included in the request. This implements provisions of the OPEN Government Act of 1997 (Act), which clarifies that the processing time of FOIA requests begins no later than ten days after first received by any agency-designated FOIA information center. The proposal also identifies NCUA's information centers.

For the Privacy Act rules, the proposal includes a number of technical changes and clarifies that requests must be submitted in writing to specified staff and the nature of the request must be on the envelope and letter. Telephone requests will no longer be permitted.

Comments are due by June 24, 2008. Please submit your comments to CUNA by June 13, 2008.

Please feel free to fax your responses to CUNA at 202-638-7052; e-mail them to Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel Mary Dunn at mdunn@cuna.coop and to Senior Assistant General Counsel Jeff Bloch at jbloch@cuna.coop ; or mail them to Mary and Jeff c/o CUNA's Regulatory Advocacy Department, 601 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, South Building, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20004-2601. You may also contact us at 800-356-9655, ext. 6732, if you would like a copy of the proposal. You may also access it here.

> Read the rest of the comment call and questions here at cuna.org

 

NCUA Proposed Rule on Changing the Low-Income Definition

The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) Board has recently issued a proposed rule to change the definition of "low-income" credit unions for federal credit unions (FCUs). The proposal would use median family income (MFI) instead of median household income (MHI) to determine if an FCU can classify as "low-income." This is not a major policy change.

The 2006 Member Service Assessment Pilot Program (MSAP) recommended that the formula for determining whether an FCU qualifies as low-income be reassessed. The NCUA Outreach Task Force agreed with the MSAP that the standard for low-income designation be changed from MHI to MFI, consistent with the practice of other federal agencies.

For a metropolitan area, the proposal would define low-income members as those living in an area that is at or below 80% of the greater of either the standard for the whole metropolitan area or the national standard. Similarly, for those not within a metropolitan area, the proposal would include low-income members living in an area in which the standard is at or below 80% of the greater of either the statewide non-metropolitan area standard or the national non-metropolitan area standard. MFI will generally be the income standard that will be used.

In order to minimize the affect of the changes, the proposal includes a five-year grandfather clause for current low-income FCUs. Credit unions unable to meet the new low-income definition will retain their low-income designation for at least five years.

Comments are due by June 27, 2008. Please submit your comments to CUNA by June 17, 2008.

Please feel free to fax your responses to CUNA at 202-638-7052; e-mail them to Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel Mary Dunn at mdunn@cuna.coop and to Senior Assistant General Counsel Jeff Bloch at jbloch@cuna.coop; or mail them to Mary and Jeff c/o CUNA's Regulatory Advocacy Department, 601 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, South Building, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20004-2601. You may also contact us at 800-356-9655, ext. 6732, if you would like a copy of the proposal. You may also access it here.

> Read the rest of the comment call and questions here at cuna.org