In 2025, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) launched its Deregulation Project in response to Executive Order #14192 – Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation. The project prioritizes removing outdated, duplicative, or unnecessarily burdensome rules while maintaining regulatory protections for members and the financial system.

To date, the agency has issued a total of 20 proposals as part of the project. On August 5, 2026, the NCUA announced that it had finalized 11 of those proposals. Each of these final rules is effective on September 8, 2026. Over the course of the next two weeks, we’ll share what these changes mean for your credit union.

Suretyship and Guaranty Requirements
Currently, Part 701.20 requires a federal credit union (FCU) to obtain a segregated deposit from the member, in connection with a suretyship or guaranty agreement, that is sufficient in amount to cover the FCU’s total potential liability. This segregated deposit may consist of collateral in which the FCU has a perfected security interest, subject to the following restrictions:

• 100% of the FCU’s total potential liability for collateral consisting of cash, US treasuries/securities, obligations fully guaranteed by the United States, or Federal Reserve Bank notes/drafts/bills, or
• 110% of the FCU’s total potential liability for collateral consisting of real estate or other marketable securities.

The final rule removes this segregated deposit/collateral requirement.

Limits on Loans to Other Credit Unions
Under Part 701.25, an FCU’s board of directors must currently approve all loans made to other credit unions. In addition, the FCU must develop and maintain very prescriptive policies and procedures for making these types of loans.

Effective September 8th, the board approval and policy/procedure requirement are removed. However, loans to other credit unions continue to be subject to the single borrower and aggregate limits listed in Part 701.25(a).

Service to Underserved Areas
The NCUA issued Interpretive Rule and Policy Statement (IRPS) 08-2 in December 2008 providing guidance on the process of approving the addition of underserved areas to an FCU’s field of membership.

The final rule withdraws IRPS 08-02 as this same information is located in the agency’s Chartering and Field of Membership Manual which can be found in Appendix B to Part 701.

Disclosure of Share Insurance for Non-Member Shares
Currently, Part 741.10 requires any credit union that accepts non-member shares or deposits to:

• Identify those non-member shares or deposits on any report required by the NCUA for insurance purposes, and
• Notify non-member share and/or deposit account holders that their shares are not insured.

Effective September 8th, each of these requirements is eliminated.

Eligible Obligations
FCU’s must have written policies for the purchase, sale, or pledge of eligible obligations. These policies must meet specific prescriptive requirements as outlined in Part 701.23. Furthermore, an FCU official, employee, or immediate family member is prohibited from receiving compensation in connection with the credit union’s purchase, sale, or pledge of an eligible obligation.

The final rule eliminates the prescriptive requirements and simply requires an FCU to have a written policy concerning the purchase, sale, or pledge of eligible obligations. The compensation restriction is also removed effective September 8th.

We’ll cover the 6 other final rules in next week’s article.