Todd Harper Selected as New NCUA Board Chairman

As expected, President Biden on Monday appointed Democrat Todd Harper as chairman of the NCUA board.

Harper becomes the first NCUA staffer to serve as an NCUA board member and as its chairman. Before joining the NCUA board, Harper served as director of the agency’s Office of Public and Congressional Affairs and chief policy advisor to former NCUA Chairwoman Debbie Matz and former board member Rick Metsger.

The NCUA board is now in a unique position—two members of the board, Rodney Hood and Kyle Hauptman are Republicans, while its chair, Harper, is a Democrat.

The designation as chairman is not subject to confirmation by the Senate.

It May Be a Long Haul to Recovery

In a December 17, 2020 article in cumanagement.com Karen Bankston writes that credit unions will need to focus on managing the risk in their loan portfolios and on delinquency control to the same or greater extent than the period after the Great Recession.

Credit unions will be working to control loan delinquency and minimize charge-offs as diligently as they had as a result of the Great Recession. The proper management tools will help in this endeavor.

TCT’s Credit Migration tool assures loan risk is managed appropriately by reporting those borrowers who are showing signs of possible loan default long before those borrowers show up on delinquency reports. In addition, TCT now offers a Delinquency Tracking tool which allows a highly effective way to manage individual delinquent accounts as well as a method to assess collection policies and practices.

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President Biden issued a temporary moratorium on regulations to CFPB & NCUA

Financial regulators, including the NCUA and the CFPB, have issued a final rule attempting to distinguish the difference between rules and guidance, but the future of that rule and several others remained in flux Thursday, after President Biden issued a temporary moratorium on regulations until they can be reviewed by the new administration.

The NCUA is an independent regulatory agency and is not required to comply with Executive Orders, but in the past, the agency has said it tries to follow the “spirit” of such orders.

NCUA officials did not respond to a request for comment about the rule or Biden’s actions Thursday.

In recent months, the NCUA board has approved a flurry of rules, as the chairmanship of Republican Rodney Hood likely comes to an end. For instance, this month the board approved proposed rules dealing with complex credit union, the CAMEL rating system, CUSOs and a final rule dealing with CUSOs.

And after the meeting, the board approved a final rule clarifying that agency guidance does not carry the same force as rules and that enforcement actions may not be taken based on guidance.

However, Biden signed an Executive Order Wednesday stating that, with some exceptions, after Jan. 20, agencies should not send rules to the Federal Register for publication until a department or agency head designated by him reviews and approves the rule. The Executive Order also stated that rules that have been published but have not become effective yet should be delayed for 60 days.

It also remained unclear whether agency heads appointed by Biden will want to go along with rules that recently were released. Democrat Todd Harper, who is likely to become NCUA board chairman, opposed several of the proposals presented by Hood.

At the CFPB, a consumer law task force appointed by then-Director Kathleen Kraninger issued a report containing proposed changes to the financial regulatory regime.

However, Kraninger resigned Wednesday at Biden’s request. Biden has announced his intention to nominate Federal Trade Commission Member Rohit Chopra to head the CFPB. Chopra worked for former CFPB Director Richard Cordray, who pushed a much stricter regulatory framework than Kraninger favors.

Until Chopra can be confirmed, Biden appointed CFPB employee Dave Uejio to run the agency. Uejio worked for both Cordray and Kraninger.

Meanwhile, Biden also rejected an Executive Order issued by Trump that restricted the types of diversity training agencies may conduct.

A Latinx activist charged in September that her speaking engagement at the NCUA was cancelled at the last minute, as the agency enforced the Trump Executive Order. Rosa Clemente was scheduled to hold a session entitled, “Unapologetically Black: Afro-Latinx Culture and Identity” as part of a Hispanic Heritage Month event.