ALEXANDRIA, Va.—Greater efficiency, responsiveness, and cost-effectiveness are goals of a long-range agency restructuring plan NCUA announced Friday.
“The time has come for the NCUA business model to change,” Board Chairman J. Mark McWatters said. “Positioning the NCUA to meet the changing demands of the credit union system we regulate in a transparent and fully accountable manner while promoting efficiency and effectiveness is essential. Re-evaluating our operations is integral to fulfilling our statutory responsibilities to protect the deposits of the nearly 108 million credit union members while maintaining the safety and soundness of the Share Insurance Fund and the viability of the credit union system.”
“Months of very hard work by agency staff have produced a solid, commonsense plan that will help the agency respond to a new economic environment without sacrificing its ability to ensure the safety and soundness of our credit union system,” Board Member Rick Metsger said. “The restructuring effort will come together over a period of years, and credit unions will reap tangible benefits from our work.”
The agency created internal review teams in late 2016 to rethink the agency’s operations, discuss how it can re-tool to do its job better, and make recommendations to the board, NCUA said.
Among the recommendations the board approved are:
- Consolidate the agency’s five regional offices into three by closing the Albany, New York, and Atlanta, Georgia, offices and eliminate four of the agency’s five leased facilities
- Create an Office of Credit Union Resources and Expansion by redefining and realigning chartering and field-of-membership, credit union development, grants and loans, and minority depository institutions programs
- Restructure the Office of Examination and Insurance into specialized working groups
- Realign the Asset Management and Assistance Center to include changes to the servicing business model and moving to a financial supervisory structure
NCUA also plans to eliminate agency offices with overlapping functions and improve functions such as examination reporting, records management, and procurement. The proposed plan anticipates a reduction in the agency’s workforce by attrition, the agency said.
CUNA and NAFCU applauded NCUA's decision to restructure.
"We commend Chairman McWatters for his efforts to modernize agency operations by finding efficiencies and eliminating redundancies. We look forward to continuing to actively engage with the Chairman as he continues to drive the agency towards reducing regulatory and examination burdens for credit unions," said CUNA President and CEO Jim Nussle.
"NAFCU is encouraged that the NCUA is positioning itself for the future by committing to increasing efficiencies and eliminating waste. We look forward to learning more about these structural changes and their potential impact on our members," said NAFCU Director of Regulatory Affairs Alexander Monterrubio.
NCUA said that additional details of the agency’s plan, including projected cost savings, will be available at the upcoming fall budget briefing. The most recent agency restructuring occurred in 2003.