The head of the Cooperative Credit Union Association (CCUA) recently urged the industry’s federal regulator to consider an 18-month examination cycle for well-run credit unions in an effort to reduce regulatory burden.

In a letter to National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) Chairman Debbie Matz, CCUA President Paul Gentile outlined the case for returning to a longer and risk-based examination cycle for credit unions that posed minimal or no risk to the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund, which he said the NCUA had considered around mid-2001.

The NCUA adopted a 12-month examination cycle in 2009, he said, “to better monitor the realities of the changed financial and economic landscape.”

But the industry’s health has stabilized and moving exams to an 18-month cycle “does not threaten the safety and soundness and will not add significant or systemic risk,” Gentile wrote.

He also noted similar efforts currently underway pending before Congress and federal banking regulators to reduce regulatory burden on community banks and clarified that he was suggesting the 18-month exam cycle only for “well-managed credit unions.”