Source: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2005/02/04/05-2205/request-for-burden-reduction-recommendation-safety-and-soundness-and-anti-money-laundering
Timestamp: 2017-10-19 09:35:16
Document Index: 680683018

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 748', 'art 703', 'art 715', 'art 749', 'art 722', 'art 741']

Federal Register :: Request for Burden Reduction Recommendation; Safety and Soundness and Anti-Money Laundering Regulations; Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act of 1996 Review
A Proposed Rule by the National Credit Union Administration on 02/04/2005
Comment must be received on or before May 5, 2005.
70 FR 5946
5946-5948 (3 pages)
05-2205
A. The EGRPRA Review Requirements and NCUA's Proposed Plan
III. Request for Comment on Safety and Soundness and Anti-Money Laundering Rules Category
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/05-2205 https://www.federalregister.gov/d/05-2205
The NCUA Board is continuing its review of its regulations to identify outdated, unnecessary, or unduly burdensome regulatory requirements imposed on federally-insured credit unions pursuant to the Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act of 1996 (EGRPRA). Today, NCUA requests comments and suggestions on ways to reduce burden in rules that govern safety and soundness and anti-money laundering, consistent with our statutory obligations. All comments are welcome.
E-mail: Address to regcomments@ncua.gov. Include “[Your name] Comments on Fourth EGRPRA Notice” in the e-mail subject line.
Public inspection: All public comments are available on the agency's Web site at http://www.ncua.gov/​RegulationsOpinionsLaws/​comments as submitted, except as may not be possible for technical reasons. Public comments will not be edited to remove any identifying or contact information. Paper copies of comments may be inspected in NCUA's law library, at 1775 Duke Street, Alexandria, Virginia 22314, by appointment weekdays between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. To make an appointment, call (703) 518-6546 or send an e-mail to OGC_Mail@ncua.gov.
NCUA seeks public comment and suggestions on ways it can reduce regulatory burdens consistent with our statutory obligations. Today, we request input to help identify which requirements in two regulatory categories—Safety and Soundness and Anti-Money Laundering—are outdated, unnecessary, or unduly burdensome. Start Printed Page 5947The rules in these categories are listed in a chart at the end of this notice. The EGRPRA review supplements and complements the reviews of regulations that NCUA conducts under other laws and its internal policies.
In drafting this notice, the NCUA participated as part of the EGRPRA planning process with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and Office of Thrift Supervision (Agencies). Because of the unique circumstances of federally-insured credit unions and their members, NCUA is issuing a separate notice from the four bank regulatory agencies, which are issuing a joint notice. NCUA's notice is consistent and comparable with the joint notice, except on issues that are unique to credit unions. For example, unlike the bank regulators, NCUA does not have a regulatory category governing securities activities, and so its notice makes no reference to that subject.
To spread the work of commenting on and reviewing the categories of rules over a reasonable period of time, we proposed to publish one or more categories of rules approximately every six months between 2003 and 2006 and provide a 90-day comment period for each publication. We asked for comment on all aspects of our plan, including: The categories, the rules in each category, and the order in which we should review the categories. Because the NCUA was eager to begin reducing unnecessary burden where appropriate, our initial notice also published the first two categories of rules for comment (Applications and Reporting and Powers and Activities). NCUA published its second notice, soliciting comment on consumer protection rules in the lending area, on February 4, 2004 (69 FR 5300), and its third notice, relating to other consumer protection rules, on July 8, 2004 (69 FR 41202). All our covered categories of rules must be published for comment and reviewed by the end of September 2006.
NCUA received eight comments in response to its first notice, four comments in response to its second notice, and six in response to the third notice. The comments have been posted on the interagency EGRPRA Web site, http://www.EGRPRA.gov, and can be viewed by clicking on “Comments.” We are actively reviewing the feedback received about specific ways to reduce regulatory burden, as well as conducting our own analyses. Because the main purpose of this notice is to request comment on the next category of regulations, we will not discuss specific recommendations that we have received in response to our earlier notices here. However, as we develop initiatives to reduce burden on specific subjects in the future—whether through regulatory, legislative, or other channels—we will discuss the public's recommendations that relate to our proposed actions.
On June 22, 2004, NCUA Chairman JoAnn Johnson testified about regulatory reform before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. Representatives from the federal banking agencies also testified, as did key private sector representatives from the financial institution industry. On August 27, Senator Mike Crapo, who is leading a financial services regulatory reform effort for the Senate Banking Committee, released a matrix detailing more than 130 burden reduction proposals that were made at the June 2004 hearing.
NCUA is asking the public to identify the ways in which the rules in the category of safety and soundness and anti-money laundering may be outdated, unnecessary, or unduly burdensome. If the implementation of a comment would require modifying a statute that underlies the regulation, the comment should, if possible, identify the needed statutory change. The rules in this category are listed in the chart below. We note that the U.S. Treasury Department also administers rules under the Bank Secrecy Act that apply to Federal credit unions. These rules are beyond the jurisdiction of the NCUA. To the extent, however, that we receive comment raising significant issues about these rules, we will assure that the issues are identified in the FFIEC report to Congress and will notify the Treasury Department of the substance of the comments.
We encourage comments that not only deal with individual rules or requirements but also pertain to certain product lines. A product line approach is consistent with EGRPRA's focus on how rules interact, and may be Start Printed Page 5948especially helpful in exposing redundant or potentially inconsistent regulatory requirements. We recognize that commenters using a product line approach may want to make recommendations about rules that are not in our current request for comment. They should do so since the EGRPRA categories are designed to stimulate creative approaches rather than limiting them. We note, in this respect, that NCUA included both its lending and investment rules in its first EGRPRA notice (68 FR 39863, July 3, 2003), and that the same rules are included with this notice as well. The first notice solicited comment on the category of Powers and Activities, while in this notice we are focused on Safety and Soundness issues. Because aspects of both rules fall into each category, we are including them for this second time. There are several other rules, which we have placed in other categories, that also involve safety and soundness. Finally, we note that, as related to state chartered, federally insured credit unions, the inclusion of subpart B of 12 CFR part 748 in this category is a shorthand reference to a number of rules codified elsewhere in our regulations that have a significant safety and soundness impact. Comment is invited on all of these rules.
Safety and Soundness and Anti-Money Laundering Rules
Lending 12 CFR 701.21.
Investments 12 CFR part 703.
Supervisory Committee Audits and Verifications 12 CFR part 715.
Guidelines for Safeguarding Member Information 12 CFR 748, appendix A.
Records Preservation Program and Record Retention Index 12 CFR part 749.
Appraisals 12 CFR part 722.
Rules that Apply to Federally insured state-chartered credit unions 12 CFR part 741, subpart B.
Report of Crimes or Suspected Crimes 12 CFR 748.1(c).
By the National Credit Union Administration Board on January 25, 2005.
1. Pub. Law 104-208, div. A, title II, section 2222, 110 Stat. 3009-414; codified at 12 U.S.C. 3311.
[FR Doc. 05-2205 Filed 2-3-05; 8:45 am]