Four regulator signals from the past two weeks, in plain English, each with one thing to do about it this month.

1. NCUA’s 13th deregulation round targets share insurance notices and two older rules

On October 20, NCUA announced its thirteenth round of proposed regulatory changes under its Deregulation Project. Three proposals are open for comment. They would drop a special reserve for nonconforming investments, remove a duplicative conversion rule, and give credit unions more flexibility on share insurance notices to members.

Do this month: have your finance and compliance leads read the three Federal Register notices linked from the release and confirm the comment deadline for each. If you hold nonconforming investments, check whether the special reserve is in your current calculations.

2. The 12th round’s comment period closes December 14

NCUA’s twelfth round, announced October 14, simplifies fidelity bond requirements and updates Part 725 on Central Liquidity Facility membership. Comments are due 11:59 p.m. ET on December 14, 2026, according to a summary of the round published by Troutman Pepper Locke.

Do this month: check your fidelity bond coverage against the proposal and decide whether to comment through Regulations.gov before the deadline.

3. The CFPB will investigate debanking after the OCC’s final review

On October 14, the OCC released its final debanking review of the nine largest national banks it supervises. The OCC found that broad, unmeasured reputation risk policies produced inconsistent outcomes and that account closure notices often gave little explanation. The same day, the CFPB said it will investigate compliance with federal consumer protection laws, including the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and the prohibition on unfair, deceptive, or abusive practices. Details are summarized by Troutman Pepper Locke.

This action is aimed at national banks. Its reach to credit unions runs through the CFPB’s consumer protection authority, so treat it as a signal about examiner attention rather than a new requirement.

Do this month: pull a sample of account closure and declined-service notices and check that each one states a specific, documentable reason. Confirm your reputation or risk-based account decisions rest on written, measurable criteria.

4. OCC opens a direct channel for payments fraud reports

On October 7, the OCC released News Release 2026-86 after a community bank panel on fraud in Minneapolis. The release announced a tool that lets community bankers report suspected payments fraud involving OCC-regulated institutions directly to an OCC fraud task force. The release also cited a near-300 percent rise in suspicious activity report filings related to check fraud over the 2020 to 2024 period, as summarized by Troutman Pepper Locke.

Like item 3, this channel serves OCC-regulated institutions, not credit unions. The trend still matters for member fraud monitoring.

Do this month: check whether your check fraud and payments fraud monitoring has kept pace with the volume trend, and confirm your SAR filing workflow for check fraud has a named owner and a review cadence.

For the regulatory context behind AI deployments, read our NCUA AI expectations piece. The full compliance-safe adoption path lives in the NCUA and compliance pillar. To pressure-test your controls before the next examination, Advisor Labs runs a 45-minute readiness audit: book a conversation.

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