NCUA board member wants stronger consumer compliance focus

In a speech delivered at a Women in Housing and Finance policy lunch, NCUA board member Todd Harper said that "NCUA's current method for examining and enforcing consumer financial protection laws and regulations in credit unions with less than $10 billion in assets that it supervises is not comparable to our sister agencies," and that "NCUA's different approach to consumer financial protection reviews runs counter to the congressionally mandated mission of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, which works to 'prescribe uniform principles, standards, and report forms' across all types of financial institutions." He said that the NCUA should "evolve its approach to consumer financial protection [and] increase guidance to the credit union system to improve compliance with consumer financial protection laws."