Suretyship and Guaranty; Segregated Deposit and Collateral
Key claim: The NCUA is eliminating prescriptive segregated deposit and collateral requirements so federally insured credit unions can structure suretyship and guaranty products more flexibly while remaining subject to existing safety-and-soundness and lending rules.
Abstract
(Rule · National Credit Union Administration) The NCUA Board (Board) is amending its regulations to eliminate prescriptive segregated deposit and collateral requirements for suretyship and guaranty agreements. By removing these requirements, the Board is authorizing federally insured credit unions (FICUs) acting as sureties and guarantors to design products that address member needs while maintaining safety and soundness standards. Federal credit unions (FCUs), and federally insured, state-chartered credit unions (FISCUs) if permitted under state law to act as a surety or guarantor, continue to be subject to other requirements related to these arrangements, including the applicable lending regulations. The final rule follows publication of the December 29, 2025, proposed rule, and takes into consideration the public comments received.
Why this matters
This finalizes a piece of NCUA’s broader deregulatory agenda for federally insured credit unions, giving them latitude to structure suretyship and guaranty products without meeting prescriptive collateralization formulas. For credit unions, it means more product-design flexibility; for members and counterparties, exposure profiles will now be governed by generally applicable lending and safety-and-soundness rules rather than a bespoke collateral regime.