Hammond, Ind. Source: Shutterstock
Tucked in the absolute northwest corner of Indiana between Chicago and Gary, Ind., is the small-ish city of Hammond. If you take I-90 or I-94 out of Chicago to the Indiana toll road that runs across the top of the state, you'll blow past Hammond in a few minutes.
I've driven that path several times over the years and I thought that whole area was Gary – my fault.
Named after George Hammond, who ran a gigantic slaughterhouse in the mid-1800s, Hammond has progressed from the early days of the industrial revolution into a city that has a casino and a nice beach along Lake Michigan. I'm sure there are other great things about Hammond too.
George Rogers Clark High School in Hammond has about 1,300 students and by all accounts is a good school. The fighting Hammond Clark Pioneers have all of the normal high school sports teams. Just days ago, the Lady Pioneers basketball team tried to make a comeback in the opening round of sectionals. Sadly, they lost 39-33 to the Wildcats from Griffith High School.
Some of the famous people who are from Hammond, Ind., include Alvah Curtis Roebuck (founder of Sears, Roebuck and Co.), Jean Shepherd (that guy who wrote and narrated the movie A Christmas Story), a bunch of football players and politicians, and now Todd Harper has been added to that list.
Todd Harper (Source: NCUA) The local area newspaper nwi.com ran a nice little feature about Harper recently – "Hammond Native Named Chairman of National Credit Union Administration board: 'I have received the greatest honor of my career,'" the headline read. The story included a dressed-up and smiling Harper sitting at a table looking straight into the camera. Honestly, I thought it was nice photo capturing his excitement at the news of President Biden naming him to lead the NCUA in January. The story also mentioned that Harper was a Clark High School graduate. I love local bragging rights stories like these. Hammond should be proud about some impressive news about one of their own. That's part of the fun of coming from a small hometown.
As the NCUA's head, Hammond's Harper has a lot of work to do on a number of fronts for the credit union universe.
Among the topics we are watching under Harper's leadership are:
- The attempted partnership with the CFPB;
- Health of the Share Insurance Fund;
- Consumer financial protection;
- Credit union loan underwriting;
- Cybersecurity risks for credit unions;
- Marijuana banking;
- The coming loan-defaulting tsunami;
- Post-COVID credit union economy;
- Risk-Based Capital proposals;
- Clarity about taxi medallion loan losses;
- Diversity, Equity and Inclusion efforts;
- Transparency in discussions with the Biden Administration; and
- CDFI expansion.
The initial first months, and even the first year, of Harper at the helm could be almost like a soap opera, depending on how he, Rodney Hood and Kyle Hauptman can work through their political and ideological differences.
Hood had the majority of the board and basically still does as Hauptman tries to get up to speed on the intricacies of the not-for-profit credit union space.
We are in a very unique time in the NCUA's history with so many economic and pandemic-related struggles impacting credit unions of all sizes across the country. What are Harper's priorities? Does he have a plan or strategy in place? We don't know yet and soon we will find out.
We wish him and the other board members well, because there's a lot on the line for thousands of credit unions.
We don't wish the Wildcats well, though. Boo, Wildcats!
Michael Ogden Michael Ogden is the editor-in-chief for CU Times and enjoys reading hometown newspapers. You can reach him at [email protected].
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Michael Ogden
Editor-in-Chief at CU Times. To connect, email at [email protected]. As Editor-in-Chief of CU Times since 2016, Michael Ogden has led the editorial team in all aspects of content strategy and execution, including the creation of the publication’s exclusive and proprietary research database of the credit union industry’s economic landscape. Under Michael’s leadership, CU Times has successfully shifted to an all-digital editorial product with new focuses on the payments, fraud, lending and regulatory beats. Most recently, he introduced a data-focused editorial product for subscribers that breaks down credit union issues into hard data, allowing for a deeper and more factual narrative for readers. In 2024, he launched the "Shared Accounts With CU Times" podcast, which offers a fresh, inside-the-newsroom perspective through interviews with leaders from the credit union industry and the regulatory world. He dives into pressing credit union issues, while revealing the personalities working behind-the-scenes to push the credit union world forward. His background includes years as a radio and TV anchor/reporter and a public relations and digital/social media manager, where he covered the food and music industries, as well as cooperatives and credit unions. Over the years, he has launched numerous exclusive video and podcast series, including a successful series of interactive backstage interviews with musicians at music festivals, showcasing his social media and live streaming production skills.
