NCUA Chairman Todd M. Harper Statement on the NCUA’s 2022 Annual Performance Plan

As Prepared for Delivery on March 17, 2022

Thank you, Jim and Nicole, for your presentation of the agency’s 2022 Annual Performance Plan. Also, thank you to Eugene Schied, Melissa Lowden, and the rest of the team in the Office of the Chief Financial Officer for your exceptional efforts in preparing not only the Annual Performance Plan for the NCUA Board’s consideration today.

Like many on the NCUA team, the all-star OCFO squad has been working nonstop. In coordinating the development of this performance plan, you maximized organizational performance to enable mission success, which one of the agency’s three strategic goals. Please know that I greatly appreciate your dedication, guidance, and service. Thank you!

I also want to thank my fellow Board members, Vice Chairman Hauptman and Board Member Hood, for suggesting the inclusion of performance metrics related to financial technology, transparency, regulatory efficiency, and financial inclusion. We incorporated these and other suggestions into this final document. Your ideas and insights made the plan a better product.

In short, the 2022 Annual Performance Plan reflects a consensus of the priorities of all Board members and the recommendations of staff. It sets out performance measures and aligns them with the agency’s 2022–2026 Strategic Plan, which the Board just approved. Each day, the NCUA strives to ensure a safe-and-sound system where credit union members are protected, access to fair and affordable financial services is improved, and confidence in the national system of cooperative credit is promoted. The many metrics in this plan keep us focused on achieving these goals.

This year, the NCUA Board’s main priority is to ensure the credit union system and the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund can adapt to the evolving financial and economic disruptions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. With the geopolitical crisis unfolding in Ukraine, the NCUA will also continue to prioritize cybersecurity and guide the credit union system through the economic uncertainty caused by inflation, rising gas bills, and continued supply chain woes.

Additionally, in 2022, the NCUA will continue its efforts to evolve its examination program and operations, expand access to safe and affordable financial services, provide consumers with financial education, and close the racial wealth gap.

In sum, the Annual Performance Plan is a robust work product. It contains important metrics to ensure the credit union system remains safe, sound, and secure. It strengthens our consumer financial protection and fair lending programs. And, it addresses emerging issues like financial innovation, cybersecurity, and climate-related financial risk. I look forward to working alongside my fellow Board members and the entire NCUA team to achieve the objectives set out in this plan throughout the year ahead.

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