ALEXANDRIA, Va.—By a vote of 3-0, the NCUA board Thursday approved its 2022 Annual Performance Plan, noting cybersecurity will be an area of focus as the war in the Ukraine unfolds.
“The 2022 Annual Performance Plan reflects a consensus of the priorities of all board members and the recommendations of staff,” said Board Chairman Todd Harper. “It sets out performance measures and aligns them with the agency’s 2022–2026 Strategic Plan, which the board just approved.”
Harper said the metrics in the plan keep the agency focused on achieving its goals.
“This year, the NCUA board’s main priority is to ensure the credit union system and the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund can adapt to the evolving financial and economic disruptions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic,” stated Harper. “With the geopolitical crisis unfolding in Ukraine, the NCUA will also continue to prioritize cybersecurity and guide the credit union system through the economic uncertainty caused by inflation, rising gas bills, and continued supply chain woes.”
Harper added that this year NCUA will continue its efforts to evolve its examination program and operations, expand access to safe and affordable financial services, provide consumers with financial education, and close the racial wealth gap.
“In sum, the Annual Performance Plan is a robust work product. It contains important metrics to ensure the credit union system remains safe, sound, and secure. It strengthens our consumer financial protection and fair lending programs,” Harper said. “And, it addresses emerging issues like financial innovation, cybersecurity, and climate-related financial risk.”
Stronger Communication
Vice Chairman Kyle Hauptman emphasized the plan will drive greater communication between agency examiners and credit unions.
“Open and transparent communication assumes NCUA isn’t just talking at credit unions,” Hauptman said. “For us to truly ensure the quality and consistency of examinations and examination reports, we need credit unions’ help in normalizing quality-assurance tools such as feedback surveys and the use of recordings during exit meetings and joint conferences,” he said.
Recording exit meetings and joint conferences has been part of the supervisory manual for years, noted Hauptman, adding the pandemic and the use of Zoom and Teams for meetings with credit unions has made recordings easier and more expected.
“These recordings are beneficial for the agency and the credit unions as they provide an invaluable resource for new examiners, credit union staff, and boards, as well as end any questions of what exactly was said,” Hauptman noted.
Board Member Rodney Hood said he is pleased the agency added a performance metric on making the Normal Operating Level calculation public.
“This is in addition to having metrics established for fintech regulation and distributed ledger technology,” noted Hood. “I also am glad that we will be looking at low-income designations and the impact the recent Census may have on these areas. I fully support the idea that (once credit unions receive a low-income designation) they should always be a Low-Income Designated Credit Union—because we should want areas to grow out of this designation. Additionally, this is how the NCUA treats underserved areas today. In other words, once an underserved area, always an underserved area.”