ALEXANDRIA, Va.–The National Credit Union Administration and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. have the “least diverse workforces among federal financial regulators, making only marginal gains over the past several years,” according to a new analysis.
Bloomberg Law said its review of the agencies’ most recent diversity statistics found minorities made up less than a third of NCUA or FDIC staff in 2019. About 39% of the employees at other financial regulators on average identified as Black, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, or multiracial last year, a Bloomberg Law review of agency data showed.
“Diversity at financial regulators has a direct impact on minorities, which make up about 40% of the U.S. population,” Bloomberg Law stated. “However, minorities disproportionately struggle for fair access to the financial system and are more likely to feel the negative impacts of economic downturns such as the 2008 housing crisis and the coronavirus pandemic.”
NCUA Response
In response to an inquiry from Bloomberg Law, NCUA Chairman Rodney Hood, who last year became the first Black leader of a federal banking agency, said increased diversity is a top priority.
“This agency has long been a leader on issues of diversity and inclusion, and we must face up to the reality that we still have much work to do internally here at the NCUA,” Hood said in a statement to Bloomberg Law.
Assessing Diversity
Bloomberg Law said it reviewed diversity statistics in annual reports from the CFPB, Federal Reserve, SEC and OCC, in addition to NCUA and FDIC.
The percentage of minorities at both the NCUA and FDIC was about 30% in 2019, a growth of only about three percentage points since 2012. While the lower percentage of minorities at the NCUA and the FDIC predates the tenures of the current Republican chairs, both financial regulators said they have made strides in minority representation in their workforces in some areas, Bloomberg Law reported.
“Minorities constituted about 15% of the NCUA’s senior staff in 2012, and now make up 25% of the ranks, for example,” according to the report.
Minorities made up 16.7% of the FDIC’s executive manager ranks at the end of 2019. That percentage has fluctuated at the FDIC in recent years, from a low of 14.1% in 2014 to a high of 18.8% in 2016, Bloomberg Law said.
“Improving diversity and inclusion at the FDIC is not theoretical or merely academic to me; it is personal,” FDIC Chairman Jelena McWilliams said in a statement to Bloomberg Law.
FDIC Workforce
The FDIC, which has about 5,800 employees, has overhauled how it recruits, trains, and retains minorities into its bank examiner staff. Examiners represent nearly 47% of the FDIC’s workforce and the positions serve as an entry point for advancement to senior level positions, the FDIC said in its 2019 report, according to Bloomberg Law.
“Individuals who began their FDIC careers as entry-level examiners tend to occupy a significant percentage of executive and managerial leadership positions at the agency,” the agency said in its 2019 report.
Since McWilliams took over at the FDIC in June 2018, minorities have accounted for 33% of new bank examiner hires, above the agency’s overall 30% minority workforce representation, according to data provided by the agency to Bloomberg Law.
‘Walk the Walk’
As CUToday.info has reported and as Bloomberg Law noted, Hood has made increasing diversity within the NCUA and the credit union industry a priority of his chairmanship, saying in speeches that financial inclusion is “the civil rights issue of our time.”
“We must always remember that if we’re going to ‘talk the talk’ about the importance of equity, we must also be prepared to ‘walk the walk,’ modeling equity in our own ranks just as we expect others to do,” Hood told Bloomberg Law.