Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the safety and soundness of the National Consumer Cooperative Bank (NCB), focusing on whether NCB is: (1) fiscally sound; and (2) able to repay its debt to the Department of the Treasury.

GAO found that: (1) NCB is a private, cooperatively-owned financial institution with limited ties to the government; (2) although NCB is overseen by the Farm Credit Administration (FCA), its discipline and most of its funds come from private-sector lenders; (3) the government does not guarantee any obligations incurred by NCB and NCB creditors do not believe that the government would intervene if NCB became financially unstable; (4) there is no need for additional regulatory oversight because the safety and soundness of NCB appears to be effectively monitored by FCA; (5) NCB has a direct financial link to the government through its debt to the Treasury; (6) as of December 1993, the government's potential financial liability was about $183 million; (7) federal law requires NCB to repay the principal amount of its debt no later than October 31, 2020; (8) in February 1993, NCB adopted a plan to accumulate a portion of the funds needed to repay its debt; (9) Treasury should be legally required to approve or monitor the NCB repayment plan; and (10) Treasury's involvement in the NCB repayment plan would help ensure that NCB maintains its repayment schedule, meets its debt requirements, and protects the taxpayers' interest.