ALEXANDRIA, Va.– NCUA Chairman Debbie Matz this morning told lawmakers the “mutually beneficial” relationship with the Financial Stability Oversight Council helps NCUA better protect credit unions and their members.
Matz testified at a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee on the Council’s work. Matz is one of 10 voting Council members.
“The Council is performing a valuable service for the American people by identifying risks, promoting market discipline and responding to emerging threats to the U.S. financial system on critical issues such as the oversight of key financial market utilities, data standards infrastructure and cybersecurity threats,” Matz told the hearing.
Matz further said the Council provides regulators with a valuable forum for sharing best practices and coordinating regulation of the nation’s financial system that helps safeguard the country’s economic stability. That level of coordination did not exist before, even as the financial system became more interconnected and every sector became more vulnerable to risks.
“The 2008-2009 financial crisis demonstrated why the complex, evolving financial system needed broader oversight,” Matz said. “I find NCUA’s inclusion on FSOC to be mutually beneficial. Participation in FSOC has expanded our perspective. As a result, NCUA is better able to fulfill its mission of providing, through regulation and supervision, a safe and sound credit union system which promotes confidence in the national system of cooperative credit. In return, the Council benefits from NCUA’s supervisory expertise and extensive analytic resources.”
NCUA’s Council membership has helped the agency understand the broader context for emerging risks to credit unions and improved access to critical financial and market information, Matz added, and the other member agencies benefit from NCUA’s perspectives in discussions of systemic risk.
Matz’s written testimony is available online here.