Kyle Hauptman

Two days after his appointment by President Donald Trump, the NCUA sent out a news release acknowledging Kyle Hauptman was its new chair.

In it, Hauptman listed eight areas where he wants to make changes, including improving internal efficiency and reducing regulations.

Shortly after Trump was sworn in as president Monday, he designated Hauptman as the NCUA’s 13th chair, replacing Todd Harper who remains on the board alongside Tanya Otsuka. In 2020 Trump nominated Hauptman, who had served on Trump’s 2016 transition team, to be vice chair.

“I am deeply honored that President Trump has asked me to serve as Chairman of NCUA,” Hauptman said. “I look forward to leading the agency’s dedicated professionals and working with my Board colleagues to create a regulatory structure that promotes growth, opportunity and innovation within the credit union system."

Hauptman said his priorities include:

  • “Re-examining the current NCUA budgeting process.”
  • “Convening groups of NCUA employees to identify achievable internal efficiencies to reduce unnecessary frictions in the agency’s operations.”
  • “Promoting the appropriate use of artificial intelligence (AI) as a tool for NCUA employees. One goal is enhancing productivity, but it’s also true that regulators who use technologies are more apt to understand why the regulated use them.”
  • “Focusing on true financial inclusion, which means removing barriers to de novo credit unions and removing the ‘pain points’ that have led to fewer and fewer small credit unions. NCUA should be mindful that the only people who think compliance is easy are those that don’t have to do it.”
  • “Codifying our procedures to protect Americans from regulation-by-enforcement. For example, no enforcement action should ever set - even clarify - policy. In America and other free societies, the sequence is: set speed limits, then give speeding tickets (no one has any obligation to be aware of someone else’s ticket).”
  • “Making clear that credit unions and their members are best positioned to assess their communities’ climate risks.”
  • “Re-assessing NCUA policies that may, even inadvertently, dissuade credit unions from serving low-income areas. This includes language around overdraft policies, particularly for credit unions located in states with especially punitive government late fees/penalties.”
  • "Right-sizing credit unions’ obligations where possible under the Bank Secrecy Act, including NCUA’s regulations surrounding Suspicious Activity Reports.”
Contact Jim DuPlessis at [email protected].

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Jim DuPlessis

A journalist for decades.