Is Hood Heading Back to the NCUA Board?

Former NCUA Vice Chairman Rodney Hood may be returning to the agency’s board, CU Times has learned.

Hood is the likely choice for a Republican seat on the board; he previously served on the NCUA board from Oct. 2005 to Aug. 2010. He has been a corporate responsibility manager at JP Morgan Chase since leaving the board. Before joining the NCUA board he was deputy administrator of the Rural Housing Service.

The NCUA board currently has two vacancies—the seat vacated more than two years ago by Debbie Matz and the seat occupied by Democrat Rick Metsger, whose term has expired.

Two members of the board may belong to the president’s political party. Current board Chairman J. Mark McWatters is a Republican. However, he is said to be a leading contender for CFPB director.

President Trump must nominate a permanent CFPB director by June 22. Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, who is serving as acting CFPB director, may only serve at the agency until that date unless President Trump nominates someone for the job.

If someone is nominated, Mulvaney may continue to serve during what promises to be a lengthy confirmation process.

As a member of the NCUA board, Hood was an opponent of excessive regulations—a theme that the Trump Administration has championed.

“My philosophy has stayed the same,” he told CU Times as he was preparing to leave office. “Regulations should be effective not excessive. I voted against more data collecting because I thought it was too burdensome.”

He also said he favored expanding the NCUA board to five members; open meetings laws make it difficult for board members to talk with each other without violating the statute.

And he said he was opposed to making credit union compensation public; he also was a proponent of having the credit union industry develop an alternative to predatory payday lenders.

When reached by CU Times for this story, Hood declined to comment on whether he expects to return to the NCUA board.