She took three trips to Hawaii, visiting Honolulu, Wailea and Waikoloa for Hawaii Credit Union League events.

Matz also visited Nashville, Tenn., Pittsburgh, San Diego, Palm Beach, Calif., and Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

According to the records, Metsger, a former Oregon state senator, visited Portland, Ore., four times for events, including a NASCUS conference and a CU Business Group conference.

Metsger joined the NCUA Board in August 2013.

The bulk of Fryzel's trips were to his hometown of Chicago for events, speaking engagements and meetings with credit union leaders.

Fryzel's travel expenses from September 2013 through September 2014 totaled $40,645, compared to $29,096 for Matz and $24,993 for Metsger.

Fryzel left the board in August 2014.

From September 2012 to September 2013, Fryzel's travel expenses totaled $42,579 compared to $25,546 for Matz.

NCUA Deputy Executive Director John Kutchey said the NCUA's official travel policy was intended to encourage board members and senior policy advisors to primarily reside in the Alexandria, Va., area, within reasonable proximity of the NCUA's headquarters.

"If a board member is claiming to be on official agency business outside the Alexandria duty station for several weeks to attend meetings, the board member would need to note that on his or her expense reimbursement vouchers," Kutchey said.

The NCUA policy's restriction against an interruption in travel for personal convenience would apply if a board member flew to a home outside the Alexandria duty station and did not return for several weeks, he added.

"Government employees must not claim reimbursement for any costs attributable to travel, for personal convenience, by an indirect route or an interruption in travel," according to the NCUA travel manual. "Government employees' travel costs are based on their official duty station, which for board members and [senior policy advisors] is Alexandria, Va. Any trip with a point of origin or point of destination not necessitated by official agency business is an indirect route."

Read more: Fryzel responds …

Fryzel, who currently lives in Chicago, said he had an apartment in Alexandria for six years and paid Virginia income taxes.

"Even though I had an apartment in Alexandria, if you travel to your residence, you had to travel to an event of some nature in order to be reimbursed for that travel," Fryzel said. "So, in other words, you had to have some sort of meeting with credit union officials, a government official or you had some type of speaking engagement or you visited a credit union. You always had to have an event or a meeting to justify your travel to wherever."

According to NCUA data, the vast majority of Fryzel's travel from September 2012 until he departed the agency was to Chicago for visits to credit unions and meetings with credit union executives and other industry leaders. Fryzel became NCUA chairman in July 2008. Matz took over as chairman of the agency in August 2009.

"It's what the board member wants his position to be, what he wants to do. On a day-to-day basis, the NCUA is run by the chairman – that's clear in the statute," Fryzel said.

"So, when a person is not chairman, they can make the decision either to sit in that office in Alexandria every day and twiddle their thumbs or go out amongst the people of the industry and determine what's going on out there, what type of shops are being run, what problems they have, what they need to keep doing their job for their members so it all depends on what the individual wants to do," he added.

Fryzel stressed that the most important time to be in Alexandria is the week of a board meeting or for events like CUNA's Governmental Affairs Conference or NAFCU's Congressional Caucus.

"You're all over the country and if you're not traveling to specific events then you make the determination what credit unions you want to visit, where you want to go, that type of thing – that's up to a board member's discretion," Fryzel said. "There's nothing that prohibits a board member from going out and meeting with credit union people regardless of where in the country that is."

Following the FOIA release, Matz said she would release board member travel records to the public going forward.

"When I reviewed the board travel expenses that NCUA's Office of General Counsel released to fulfill Credit Union Times' request under the Freedom of Information Act, I determined that all board members' travel expenses should be subject to full transparency," Matz said. "Thus, going forward, I believe the agency should commit to proactively releasing all board members' travel records annually."

Matz told CU Times Senate-confirmed officials should be held to the highest standards of public service.

"NCUA board members are expected to devote full time toward deliberating and developing regulatory policies. Board members are also expected to go the extra mile and meet with a wide variety of stakeholders in order to understand the effects of those regulations," she explained.

Matz said releasing the travel records annually would inform the public of each board member's outreach to credit union officials around the country.

"Annual releases will also further enhance budget transparency and provide stakeholders regular opportunities to evaluate whether each board member's travel expenses meet a reasonable person's standards for common sense and sound judgment," she said.

Read more: What does McWatters think?

NCUA Board Member J. Mark McWatters, who joined the agency in August 2014, currently lives in Dallas. He pledged to pay all costs associated with his travel to and from any location when he is not on official NCUA business.

"I have not sought and will not seek reimbursement from NCUA for any of these expenses. My principal responsibility as a member of the NCUA board is to exercise autonomous and unencumbered analysis and judgment regarding credit union regulatory, oversight and policy matters," McWatters said.

During his time with the agency, McWatters said he has met with leagues including the Cornerstone Credit Union League, the Cooperative Credit Union Association, the Hawaii Credit Union League and the Idaho Credit Union League. McWatters also conducted town hall meetings with the California and Nevada Credit Union Leagues, the League of Southeastern Credit Unions, the Georgia Credit Union League, the Illinois Credit Union League, the Maryland and DC Credit Union Association and others.

McWatters said he supports the public release of board members' travel records.

"As a matter of principle and fairness to the credit union community that funds the NCUA budget, I support the disclosure of all travel related expenses paid by NCUA for board members, employees, consultants and independent contractors," he said. "It's reassuring that NCUA is finally beginning to appreciate the importance of transparency to the credit union community, a view for which I have consistently and vociferously advocated."

McWatters said his office had not been consulted regarding the disclosure of the NCUA-funded travel expenses so he was not able to offer any further comments on the matter.

Former NCUA Board Chairman Dennis Dollar said he would leave the choice of working in Alexandria or elsewhere up to each board member.

"How much time a board member spends in Alexandria, how much time one spends on the road and how much time one spends back home is a board member by board member call. It's a matter of how the board member feels he or she can be most effective," he said.

Dollar continued, "I would never try to impose my approach of how I tried to be effective in influencing NCUA policy to another presidentially-appointed and Senate- confirmed board member."

Dollar moved to Northern Virginia when he became a member of the board and spent most of his time at NCUA headquarters in Alexandria.

"When I was a board member with Norm D'Amours and Yolanda Wheat, I felt I needed to be in the office as much as possible to keep an eye on where policy was headed when the two of them had such fundamental disagreements," he said.

Dollar explained it was necessary to be in Alexandria more often when he became chairman in 2001, given the expansion of his duties. He said many more administrative matters cross the chairman's desk.

"I traveled sufficiently as chairman to keep up with what was going on in the industry I regulated and to get out of the self-indulgent Beltway mindset at times, but I definitely traveled more as a board member than I did as chairman," Dollar said.