He also wrote that the agency should not be hesitant to implement change if data validates the reasonableness of such a change.

"We need to start by identifying the problem, and then determine what the effective and efficient way is to meet the agency's mandate with minimal impact on credit unions," he wrote. 

Additionally, he said he wanted to initiate a thorough review and analysis of key agency processes that drive the core of the agency's mission. He called it 'Continual Quality Improvement,' or CQI, and said it as the credit union world changes that the regulator evolves its processes and procedures.

"I intend to have us look at how our new technological tools, combined with a more sophisticated but consolidating industry, can alter our examination and supervision processes to work more efficiently and more effectively. By [2016], I want to have a list of recommendations along with an implementation schedule and plan for those recommendations," he added.

NCUA Board Member J. Mark McWatters told CU Times he would like to see an earlier return to an 18-month exam cycle.

"Although I certainly appreciate the chair's safety and soundness concerns as well as the internal implementation issues that will arise, I would prefer that we begin the phase in of an extended examination cycle this year for a well defined subset of credit unions," he said.

The White House press office did not respond by deadline to questions asking when the president would name a new NCUA board chairman or nominate a new board member to replace Matz.

McWatters is also waiting for a confirmation hearing after his nomination to the Export-Import Bank board in January. If McWatters departs for the Ex-Im Bank before a replacement is named for Matz, the board could find itself with a sole member in Metsger.

The NCUA could function with a solitary board member, which has happened twice in the past, according to NCUA Public Affairs Specialist John Fairbanks.