NCUA Chairman Todd M. Harper Statement on the NCUA’s 2025 Annual Performance Plan

As Prepared for Delivery on January 16, 2025

Thank you, Jim and Melissa, for your presentation on the National Credit Union Administration's 2025 Annual Performance Plan. And, thank you to the entire team in the Office of the Chief Financial Officer for your diligent and collaborative efforts across the agency in preparing this plan for the NCUA Board's consideration today.

Moreover, I was pleased to work with Board Member Otsuka to add a provision that will ensure that the updated Minority Depository Institution Preservation Program approved in 2024 will be included as a metric in this plan. I thank Vice Chairman Hauptman for also supporting that sensible addition.

As I have often said, if you don't measure it, you can't manage it. That's what makes the NCUA's 2025 Annual Performance Plan so important. This plan includes specific measures and targets in support of the agency's mission and the goals as outlined in the 2022-2026 Strategic Plan. It describes the means, strategies, and specific actions the NCUA will undertake in 2025 to achieve each strategic objective. It also outlines how the agency will measure its performance and continue to effectively supervise and insure a growing and evolving credit union system.

In 2025, the NCUA will continue to address consumer financial protection hand in glove with safety and soundness. Credit union members deserve no less. Consumer financial protection is not only a core part of the NCUA's mission, but the agency is also statutorily required to supervise and enforce compliance with federal consumer financial protection laws. And, consumer financial protection is specifically included in the agency's strategic vision. That's why I'm pleased that this plan includes a metric requiring the Board to adopt a framework to begin implementation of an enhanced consumer compliance program for complex credit unions.

This plan also charges the NCUA team with enhancing consumer access to safe, fair, and affordable financial products and services, a critical mission of the agency. This work includes meeting the needs of underserved communities, ensuring that the agency has the expertise to understand the extension of credit related to climate events and the use of artificial intelligence, providing resources to aid small credit unions and minority depository institutions, and supporting the development of new federal credit unions, including the formation of more minority depository institutions.

With credit unions growing in asset size and operational complexity, there are two other matters worth mentioning here. First, this plan notes that the Board will begin work on reassessing the methodology used to establish the normal operating level for the Share Insurance Fund to respond to those industry changes. In my view, it's better to set aside sufficient reserves in good economic environments than it is to charge Share Insurance Fund premiums during economic downturns.

Second, this plan discusses the need for the agency to continue its efforts to enhance the enterprise risk-management practices at the largest credit unions. We especially need to ensure the orderly resolution of large institutions with the Board adoption, as appropriate, and agency implementation of new procedures, processes, and protections in the year ahead.

In the spirit of transparency and accountability, the results of our Annual Performance Plan measures are reported each year in the NCUA's Annual Report to Congress. Additionally, the Office of the Chief Financial Officer provides quarterly updates that the NCUA Board and offices use to track progress and, if necessary, take appropriate actions to maintain and achieve our objectives.

In closing, while this plan provides the NCUA with a roadmap for measuring its performance, it is the dedication, professionalism, and hard work of our NCUA team that will allow us to succeed as an agency. I am proud to serve alongside each and every one of you. I know that, together, we will fulfill our goals, continue to protect credit union members and the system of cooperative credit, and strengthen our nation's economic wellbeing, especially for people of modest means.

That concludes my remarks. I now recognize Vice Chairman Hauptman.