Skip to main content

President Donald Trump has appointed J. Mark McWatters as acting chairman of the NCUA

President Donald Trump has appointed J. Mark McWatters as acting chairman of the NCUA, industry sources said Thursday.

NCUA had not confirmed the selection by the time this story was posted.
McWatters, a Republican, replaces Rick Metsger, a Democrat who remains on the board. The president has the power to select a chairman and it had been widely speculated that Trump would select McWatters, since currently there are only two members on the three-member NCUA board.
The chairman designation does not require Senate confirmation

Trump will be able to nominate another Republican for the vacancy on the board. However, the president’s party may only have two seats on the board.

McWatters became a member of the board in August 2014, when he was confirmed by the Senate. At the time, he was new to the credit union industry.

Last year, President Obama nominated McWatters for a vacancy on the Export-Import Bank, but the nomination died when the-Senate Banking Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), an opponent of the bank, refused to consider the choice.

In the December issue of the NCUA Report, McWatters outlined several priorities he would like to see the board tackle this year, including areas in which the agency could be more helpful to small credit unions and the establishment of a Credit Union Advisory Council

Prior to joining the board, he was a member of the Troubled Asset Relief Program Congressional Oversight Panel and served as counsel to House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas).


Before that, he served as the Assistant Dean for Graduate Programs and a Professor of Practice at the Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law, as well as an Adjunct Professor at the SMU Cox School of Business.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What Does PTSD in a Firefighter Look Like? A New Brain Scan Can Show You

Link Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is often described as one of the invisible scars that firefighters and others accumulate after years of dealing with trauma in their jobs. Now the scars are invisible no longer. A new tool—the SPECT scan—is offering a new way for firefighters and others with PTSD to visualize their injuries. SPECT stands for single photon emission computed tomography, and it creates 3-D scans of the patient’s brain that look at blood flow and brain activity, KTLA reports. Those scans can then be used to generate a treatment plan tailored to the specific patient based on the visual effects of PTSD. Retired Firefighter-Paramedic Matthew Fiorenza, a PTSD sufferer, told the station that the scans also help make the illness more tangible. “Looking at a picture of my brain, it just took the stigma out of it,” he told KTLA. “It’s like, okay, I’m not crazy.”  

The Pros and Cons of Tariffs

Since there has been so much discussion on Tariffs, I felt a post would benefit our membership. Grant Sheehan CEO NCOFCU Tariffs 1440 Business & Finance Background A tariff—a word derived from the Arabic arafa, meaning “to make known”— is a tax imposed by a government on goods that are imported or exported . Historically, tariffs have served as a primary source of revenue and a means to protect domestic industries, as they make foreign products more expensive, encouraging consumers to purchase locally produced goods. The tools have a checkered history, famously bolstering US textiles, German steel, Japanese cars, South Korean technology, and more, arguably contributing to major economic downturns like the Great Depression. Tariffs can be specific (a fixed fee per unit) or ad valorem (a percentage of the item's value). Purpose Economically, tariffs aim to protect domestic industries, generate government revenue, and influence trade policy. By imposing taxes on imported goods —wh...

Advice On Winning Over Gen Z In ’25

NEW YORK—As 2025 approaches the close of Q1, how can credit unions win over Gen Z? By tailoring credit rewards for a digital-first generation, a new report recommends. Gen Z is reshaping the workforce and redefining financial behaviors. As of 2024, this generation is poised to surpass Baby Boomers in workforce size and will make up 30% of the workforce by 2030. This rapid growth presents a major opportunity for financial institutions to tap into a younger, digitally native audience with distinct spending habits and financial needs, emphasized a GlobalData report authored by Zachary Johnson, specialist, campaign execution & strategy, financial services at VDX.tv. “Unlike previous generations, Gen Z’s economic journey has been shaped by inflation and delayed career starts due to the pandemic and skyrocketing living costs. These factors have made them highly dependent on credit, with Gen Zers being 23% more likely to own a credit card than Millennials at the same age, and carrying...

Hauptman Announces Changes to NCUA’s Overdraft/NSF Fee Collection

      Hauptman Announces Changes to NCUA’s Overdraft/NSF Fee Collection WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 3, 2025) – To help ensure credit unions can continue to support the needs of Americans struggling with inflation, the National Credit Union Administration will no longer publish overdraft and non-sufficient fund fee income for individual credit unions, Chairman Kyle S. Hauptman announced today. The NCUA will ...

Share Insurance Fund Report Highlights Asset, Income Growth in Q4 2024

      Share Insurance Fund Report Highlights Asset, Income Growth in Q4 2024 ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Feb. 27, 2025) – The National Credit Union Administration Board held its second open meeting of 2025 and received a briefing by the Chief Financial Officer on the performance of the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund for the quarter ending on December 31, 2024. The Share Insurance Fund reported a net income of ...