WASHINGTON — Although he did not ride in on a horse or draw a gun, NCUA Chairman Michael E. Fryel made clear at NAFCU's Congressional Caucus that there is a new sheriff in town.

Seven weeks into his tenure and facing one of the nation's worst financial crises in history, Fryzel promised to be aggressive and proactive in dealing with problems of individual credit unions and the industry as whole.

"Now is not the time for a 'business as usual' passive approach. Rather, I will be very direct: where I see a balance sheet problem, I will move decisively to resolve it," he said during his address at last Wednesday's closing session of the conference. "Where I see adverse trends, I will take steps to correct them. And where activities prove to carry unacceptably high levels of risk and expose consumers to potential loss, I will intervene decisively."