NCUA Chairman Todd Harper testified before the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee Thursday. Harper—who joined the board in 2019 and was named chairman in January—has been re-nominated by President Joe Biden for an additional term.

“There are several pertinent issues that we bring to the attention of the Committee in the context of Chairman Harper’s renomination,” CUNA wrote in a letter for the record of the nomination hearing. “NCUA’s continued work on COVID-19 related policy accommodations, the need for NCUA to have flexibility with respect to prompt corrective action (PCA) requirements, our concern with proposals to adjust the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund (NCUSIF), our support for additional charter enhancement legislation that will further enable credit unions to focus on their members’ financial well-being, and concerns raised by banking trade associations regarding the small number of bank sales to credit unions.”

Highlights of the letter include:

• Congress should enact legislation that provides temporary flexibility to NCUA to offer forbearance from PCA to otherwise healthy credit unions impacted by federally declared emergencies or disasters.
• CUNA is troubled by the remarks of several NCUA officials, Harper, suggesting that NCUA may need to charge a NCUSIF premium in the near future and advocating for statutory changes to the NCUSIF funding guidelines and normal operating level.
• Charter enhancement legislation is needed that:
  • Allows all federal credit unions to add underserved areas to their field of membership and exempt business loans made by credit unions to businesses in underserved areas from the credit union member business lending cap.
  • Makes permanent the changes to NCUA’s Central Liquidity Facility present in the CARES Act.
  • Eliminates restrictions on lending maturity limits
  • Permits credit unions to establish their own fiscal year
  • Enhances flexibility of federal credit unions to schedule board meetings
  • Removes outdated responsibilities of boards of directors
  • Eliminates the requirement to file certain information regarding loan officers
  • Ensures credit unions have the ability to better protect members and employees
• Despite claims to the contrary, transactions involving banks selling to credit unions ensure continued access to locally provided, safe and affordable financial services.