Page 13 - 2015 Contact Magazine: 3rd Quarter

On the budgeting process: We’re going to have a briefing on the
2017–2018 budget. The more input we get, the better it is in
decision-making. When it comes to the budget, we don’t make
budgets by referendum; I’m going to make that decision along
with Board Member [J. Mark] McWatters. But I’m certainly open
to having discussions—and I’m really excited about the opportu-
nity to show the regulated community just how hard we work at
putting together a budget that is an efficient use of credit union at 18. So that’s why I call it flexibility. It’s an
dollars that also gets the job done.
On rule-making: Finishing that field-of-membership rule that we
started earlier this year and moving that to final rule by the end Cybersecurity remains one of the biggest
of this year will be a top priority.
t lessons did ou le rn rom t e process o dr ing t e
genc s contro ersi l ris b sed c pit l rule
One thing I think it did—and I think this has helped inform the
issue briefings I began [in May] at NCUA—is that it illustrated
the value of having discussions before we engage in complex
rule-making. You can avoid a lot of conflict and missteps if you
have discussions about some of these complex issues before
you actually put the pen to paper.
How soon do you expect the NCUA board to once again be
ull st ed
I think it’s realistic to assume that we will maintain a two-
member board at least through the end of this year.
ile CUA is mo ing tow rd n mont e m c cle
for certain healthy credit unions, what other changes do
you think the agency can implement to improve the
e min tion process
We’re looking at extending the current exam cycle for well-
managed credit unions, but we’re not locked into a specific time
frame. Keep in mind, state-chartered credit unions throughout
the country have their own state regulations of when they have
Rick Metsger addresses 
members of Michigan’s 
delegation to the 
2015 CUNA GAC.
Photo courtesy of CUNA.
to be examined, and one of the things we hear from
our state regulators is try to coordinate your exam
times with us as much as possible. If you’re in
Texas and you have a law that says credit unions
have to be examined every 15 months, those
credit unions probably don’t want to be exam-
ined at 15 months and then three months later
extended exam cycle, but it could be a little
bit different for every state.
issues in the industry. What role do you
believe NCUA should take in helping
credit unions to combat it and in the
push for Congress to enact stricter data
security standards for retailers?
One thing Congress could do to help is
to provide authority for NCUA to have
third-party vendor authority, particu-
larly in the area of electronic and
cybersecurity communication and
lending. You have third-party ven-
dors that deal with multitudes of
credit unions, and a breakdown
in their cybersecurity protection
could provide a systemic risk to
hundreds of credit unions. So
that authority is one from
Congress that I think is really
important to the overall health
of the system, and we con-
tinue to be the only financial
regulator that does not have
that authority.
T hird Q uarter 2016 I Contact 13