by Amy Kleinschmit, Director of Compliance

FinCEN Webinars. On September 18, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network held an informational webinar on the new Suspicious Activity Report. The recording of this webinar along with the presentation material is now available for viewing:

            Access webinar here: http://treas.yorkcast.com/webcast/Viewer/?peid=2f93fd0fe8344ca98fe6b45c9ac312191d

Access presentation materials here: http://www.fincen.gov/whatsnew/pdf/TheNewFinCENSAR-RecordedPresentation.pdf 

FinCEN will also be releasing the informational webinar and presentation materials on CTRs and DOEPs in the very near future.

Back filing CTRs. If you miss the deadline to file a Currency Transaction Report and therefore need to back file a CTR, instead of calling the IRS Detroit Computing Center you will need call the FinCEN regulatory helpline which is 1-800-949-2732. This change was effective September 17, 2012.

NCUA Legal Opinion Letter. The National Credit Union Administration recently released Legal Opinion Letter 12-1007, which can be found here: http://www.ncua.gov/Legal/OpinionLetters/OL2012-12-1007.pdf

This letter addresses the question of “whether NCUA may approve a credit union’s request to receive a change in its charter and subsequently merge with another credit union with the same type of field of membership.” The letter concludes that NCUA does have the authority to approve such a charter conversion and subsequent merger. Legal Opinion Letter 12-1007 discusses the background of the American Bankers Association’s challenges to NCUA’s rule that implemented the Credit Union Membership Access Act. The ABA challenged that the several provisions of the rule were too permissive with respect to credit union formation and growth. The ABA’s challenges were denied by the district court and the US Court of Appeals reached similar conclusions and upheld the district court’s ruling.

“These decisions support NCUA’s discretion under the FCUA to approve the voluntary merger of two healthy multiple common-bond credit unions. In addition, NCUA has discretion under the FCUA to approve a change to a credit union’s charter to facilitate a voluntary merger with another healthy credit union. The FCUA expressly authorizes NCUA to approve credit union charters and subsequent conversions of those charters. It also provides NCUA authority to approve the voluntarily merger of credit unions. Taken together, these statutory provisions provide the authority to NCUA to permit charter conversions to facilitate subsequent mergers.”

Should you have any questions or concerns on these or any other compliance or regulatory topic or issue, please do not hesitate to contact Amy Kleinschmit at akleinschmit@cuad.coop or 701.214.9721.