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Agency stance on overdraft fees, climate change and consumer protection could all be impacted.
NCUA board member Rodney Hood, whose term expires this month, says he’s willing to continue to serve on the board as a replacement goes through the Senate confirmation process—a decision that could have policy implications for the agency during the next several months.
In a question-and-answer session with NAFCU Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Greg Mesack, Hood said that board members typically have stayed on when their term expires if someone has not yet been confirmed to replace the member.
Backstory and Context
That has not always been the case, however. For instance, Democrat Debbie Matz chose to resign in 2016 after continuing to serve on the board for a year after her term expired.
Her resignation left Democrat Rick Metsger and Republican Mark McWatters on the board, until Hood was nominated by President Trump.
So, members have not always remained on the board and President Biden could also ask Hood to leave even if nobody else has been nominated.
Should Hood stay on until he is replaced, the board will remain in Republican control, even though Biden is a Democrat. Board Vice Chairman Kyle Hauptman is a Republican; chairman Todd Harper is the lone Democrat.
Potential Impact
Hood’s decision could potentially delay some of Harper’s high-priority issues until another Democrat joins the board.
For instance, Harper has established consumer protection as an examination priority, saying that the other banking regulators conduct separate consumer protection exams, while the NCUA has not.
He has pushed proposals to add additional staff resources to consumer protection efforts, but the Republican board members have blocked them.
Harper also has said he would like the agency to push credit unions to set lower overdraft fees or even eliminate them altogether.
And finally, as a member of the Financial Stability Oversight Council, Harper has said financial regulators must identify climate change as a systemic risk for the banking system.
The NCUA board approved a request for information from stakeholders on climate change. Hood went along with that request but made it clear he would not support anything more aggressive, while Hauptman voted against even requesting comment on the issue.
NCUA
