[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 5 (Friday, January 8, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 1532-1533]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-29270]


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NATIONAL CREDIT UNION ADMINISTRATION


Request for Information on NCUA Communications and Transparency

AGENCY: National Credit Union Administration (NCUA).

ACTION: Notice; request for information (RFI).

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SUMMARY: The NCUA is seeking comments and information from interested 
parties on the NCUA's communication methods and related initiatives to 
promote efficiency and increase transparency.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before March 9, 2021.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be submitted using one of the methods below 
(Please do not send comments through multiple methods). Mail: Please 
direct written comments to Melane Conyers-Ausbrooks, Acting Secretary 
of the Board, National Credit Union Administration, 1775 Duke Street, 
Alexandria, VA 22314.
    <bullet> Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. 
Follow the instructions for submitting comments.
    <bullet> Public Inspection: You may view all public comments on the 
Federal eRulemaking Portal at http://www.regulations.gov 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. Due to social distancing measures, the usual 
opportunity to inspect paper copies of comments is unavailable. After 
social distancing measures are relaxed, visitors may make an 
appointment to review paper copies by calling (703) 518-6330 or 
emailing <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#8fe0eaeeece2eee6e3cfe1ecfaeea1e8e0f9"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="a7c8c2c6c4cac6cecbe7c9c4d2c689c0c8d1">[email protected]</span></a>.
    All comments received must include the agency name for this 
rulemaking. All comments received will be posted without change to the 
NCUA's websites (www.ncua.gov and www.mycreditunion.gov)--including any 
personal information provided--for public inspection. Spam or marketing 
materials will be discarded without publication.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ben Hardaway, National Credit Union 
Administration, Office of External Affairs and Communications, 1775 
Duke Street, Alexandria, VA 22314, telephone (703) 518-6333, and email 
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#50323831223431273129103e3325317e373f26"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="4e2c262f3c2a2f392f370e202d3b2f60292138">[email protected]</span></a>. Media inquiries should be directed to NCUA's Office 
of External Affairs and Communications at (703) 518-6330 or 
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#b3dcd6d2d0ded2dadff3ddd0c6d29dd4dcc5"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="d2bdb7b3b1bfb3bbbe92bcb1a7b3fcb5bda4">[email protected]</span></a>.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The NCUA's examination and supervision of 
federally insured credit unions and enforcement of applicable rules and 
regulations is designed to protect the safety and soundness of the 
credit union system and ensure consumer financial protection. To 
accomplish this mission, the NCUA must be able to communicate 
efficiently and effectively with financial institutions.
    Stakeholders learn about the agency's mission, values, policies, 
initiatives, and strategic goals primarily through NCUA.gov. While the 
NCUA's audience is diverse, each user has the same basic need: To 
obtain information to make important financial and business decisions 
quickly and easily. Outdated, duplicative, or hard-to-find content 
reduces the effectiveness of the NCUA's communications with federally 
insured credit unions and increases their overall regulatory burden as 
they must spend time and staff resources sorting through the NCUA's 
communications in order to comply with regulatory and supervisory 
guidance.

Overview of Request for Information

    The NCUA is seeking public input on how to make its communications 
with federally insured credit unions more effective, consistent, and 
clear to minimize unnecessary regulatory and operation burdens as much 
as possible and promote compliance with all applicable laws and 
regulations. While the NCUA's communications are essential to fulfill 
its statutory mandate, the agency recognizes the amount of information 
it provides to credit unions can create challenges and may impose 
unintended burdens for institutions. The agency intends to remove 
outdated, duplicative and superseded regulatory and supervisory 
guidance from its website.
    Additionally, the NCUA is asking its stakeholders to suggest 
initiatives that would maximize efficiency and minimize burdens 
associated with obtaining information on federal laws, regulations, 
policies, guidance, and other materials relevant to federally insured 
credit unions.

Forms of Communication

    The NCUA uses many forms of communication to inform credit unions 
about regulations, policies and guidance, industry data and educational 
materials, and other news and updates. The agency's primary 
communications channel is its website, NCUA.gov, which provides 
information on many agency activities. Some forms of communication may 
be used to disseminate more than one type of information, and some 
materials may be distributed through multiple channels.

[[Page 1533]]

These forms of communication include, but are not limited to:
Regulations, Policies, Procedures, and Guidance
    <bullet> Federal Register: The NCUA publishes in the Federal 
Register proposed and final rules, requests for information, and other 
notices, including statements of policy and certain guidance or 
interpretations.
    <bullet> Unified Agenda: Biannually through the Unified Agenda 
process, the NCUA publicizes an agenda of regulations to inform the 
public of its regulatory actions and to enhance public participation in 
the rulemaking process.
    <bullet> Letters to Credit Unions: These provide guidance on 
specific NCUA policies and procedures, compliance, governance, and 
other timely issues that affect all federally insured credit unions.
    <bullet> Letters to Federal Credit Unions: These provide guidance 
on specific NCUA policies and procedures, compliance, governance, and 
other timely issues that affect only credit unions with a federal 
charter.
    <bullet> Risk Alerts: These detail practices or external threats 
that potentially are significant risks to the safety and soundness of 
the credit union system.
    <bullet> Regulatory Alerts: The NCUA uses regulatory alerts to 
provide guidance on rules and regulations from other agencies that all 
credit unions must comply with.
    <bullet> Supervisory Letters: While geared towards the NCUA's 
examiners to provide instructions and information on a range of 
supervisory and regulatory issues, these letters are posted on the 
NCUA's website for the benefit of credit unions and the public.
    <bullet> Accounting Bulletins: The NCUA uses Accounting Bulletins 
to provide guidance and instructions on how changes in generally 
accepted accounting principles and other regulatory initiatives affect 
how credit unions report these items in their financial statements.
    <bullet> Corporate Credit Union Guidance Letters: The NCUA's Office 
of National Examinations and Supervision issues letters to inform 
corporate credit unions about specific NCUA policies and procedures, 
compliance, governance, and other timely issues.
    <bullet> Consumer Financial Protection Updates: These are used to 
announce new activity on consumer compliance laws, regulations and 
guidance.
    <bullet> Examination Manuals

[ssquf] Online Examiners Guide
    [ssquf] National Supervision Policy Manual
    [ssquf] Chartering and Field of Membership Manual
    [ssquf] Fair Lending Guide
    [ssquf] Federal Consumer Financial Protection Guide

    <bullet> Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) or Questions and Answers 
(Q&As)
    <bullet> NCUA Open Board Meetings and Associated Documents.

[ssquf] Board Meeting Agendas
[ssquf] Board Action Memorandum
[ssquf] Board Action Bulletins
News and Updates
<bullet> Press Releases
<bullet> Speeches
<bullet> Testimony
<bullet> Statements
<bullet> Annual Reports to Congress
<bullet> Events Calendar
Industry Data, Educational Materials, and Outreach
<bullet> Credit Union and Corporate Call Report Data
<bullet> Quarterly State Map Reviews
<bullet> Industry at a Glance
<bullet> CUSO at a Glance
<bullet> Chartering and Merger Activity Reports
<bullet> Manuals and Guides
<bullet> NCUA Videos, Webcasts, Webinars
General Communications
<bullet> NCUA.gov website and MyCreditUnion.gov
<bullet> Social Media (such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and 
YouTube)
<bullet> NCUA Express Email Subscriptions

Request for Comment

    To reduce the burden for institutions and others seeking 
information, both in terms of expending fewer resources to find 
relevant information and decreasing the amount of information that 
requires review, the NCUA is seeking input on how best to streamline 
and improve communication with its stakeholders. The NCUA encourages 
comments from all interested members of the public, including but not 
limited to, federally insured credit unions, other financial 
institutions or companies, credit union service organizations, vendors, 
individual credit union members and consumers, consumer groups, and 
other members of the financial services industry. Please be as specific 
as possible to allow the NCUA to evaluate comments more effectively.
    In addition to general feedback on the NCUA's communication 
practices and related initiatives, the agency requests input on the 
following specific topics and questions related to its communications 
and transparency:
    [ssquf] The NCUA issues, or has issued, regulatory and supervisory 
guidance under a variety of different letterheads, including Letters to 
Credit Unions, Letters to Federal Credit Unions, Corporate Credit Union 
Guidance Letters, Accounting Bulletins, Risk Alerts, Regulatory Alerts, 
Consumer Financial Protection Updates, and Supervisory Letters. Is this 
practice effective? Should the agency consider consolidating its 
supervisory guidance into fewer letterheads?
    [ssquf] How effective are the NCUA's current forms of 
communication, such as press releases, social media content, and email 
distributions? Which of these are the most or the least effective? Are 
there other methods of communication the NCUA should consider?
    [ssquf] Which communications vehicles are best suited for informing 
federally insured credit unions about new policy initiatives, laws and 
regulations, guidance, background or educational materials, news and 
other updates?
    [ssquf] How appropriate is the timing and frequency of the NCUA's 
communication?
    [ssquf] Is it clear to federally insured credit unions which of the 
agency's communication is supervisory in nature and which is purely 
informational?

Questions Related To Improving the Agency's Websites and Online 
Resources

    [ssquf] How can the NCUA improve the NCUA.gov and MyCreditUnion.gov 
websites? Does the website search function provide helpful and relevant 
results? What aspects of the NCUA.gov and MyCreditUnion.gov websites 
are the most helpful?
    [ssquf] How often do you access the financial performance, 
chartering and merger data available on NCUA.gov? Is the current format 
useful to you? How can we improve the presentation of data online?
    [ssquf] What other financial, business, or economic data websites 
do you use? What do you like about how they present their financial or 
economic data? What features should the NCUA consider when improving 
its presentation of financial performance and other data to 
stakeholders online?
    Commenters are also encouraged to discuss any other relevant issues 
they believe the NCUA should consider with respect to the agency's 
communications and websites.

    Authority: 67 FR 63452 (October 11, 2002).

    By the National Credit Union Administration on December 30, 
2020.
Melane Conyers-Ausbrooks,
Secretary of the Board.
[FR Doc. 2020-29270 Filed 1-7-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7535-01-P


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