The organization has not received any information regarding new appointments but said it would continue advocating with state leagues to ensure the NCUA remains independent.

Nussle noted that Trump had the legal authority to fire former board members Todd Harper and Tanya Otsuka. He added that the NCUA interprets current law and precedent to mean that one board member constitutes a quorum when no others are available.

“The agency indicates that Chairman [Kyle] Hauptman is equipped with the required authorities to continue implementing the administration's priorities and continue to ensure the safety and soundness of the system,” Nussle said.

Nevertheless, credit unions asked Nussle: What is Chairman Hauptman going to do and what does the timeline look like?

“We don't know,” Nussle said. “That's something I would hope that the Chairman speaks to as quickly as he can. I will tell you that one of the things I would look for is the Chairman just took office and made it very clear in an outline of his priorities what he felt like he wanted to accomplish as the chair of the NCUA.”

Nussle said Hauptman wants the NCUA to focus on technology and to be more open and innovative. The board chair also has made it a priority to reexamine the budget process at the NCUA, charter new credit unions, reduce what Hauptman called internal agency friction, do away with regulation by enforcement, and examine and possibly make some adjustments to the obligations that credit unions have under the Bank Secrecy Act.

“When I think about the answer to the question, ‘What's he gonna do?’, let's look at what he's already said,” Nussle said. “He may say more, but I think we should take him at his word as a new chair to begin with, let alone as an individual chair now going forward that these would be his priorities.”

Nussle also addressed many questions from member credit unions as to whether the changes at the NCUA signaled an indication of a consolidation of the banking or financial services regulatory agencies.

“And the indication I would give you is there's nothing that we have seen, read or heard in our advocacy efforts to give that indication,” Nussle said. “At this point, this is something we are obviously monitoring. It goes to the heart of whether or not we believe we will have an independent agency.”

He noted, however, that on March 6, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated at the Economics Club in New York that the nation needs financial regulators “singing from the same song sheet,” which does not mean the consolidation of the agencies, but rather coordination via Treasury so that regulators work in parallel with each other and the industries.

“So that is a very similar lament and priority that many administrations have communicated in the past,” Nussle said. “And so there's nothing here that indicates that that would be changed.”

Big concerns persist, nevertheless, regarding the fate of the credit union tax exemption and whether it might face elimination to help fund President Trump’s so-called “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” a comprehensive legislative package that aims to extend and expand upon the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), incorporating additional tax relief measures and broader policy initiatives.

“America’s Credit Unions, our league partners, and all credit unions leaders that are so involved in [Don’t Tax My Credit Union] advocacy every single day - and we so appreciate it - this is what we're going to have to be doing over the course of the next couple of months,” Nussle said.

“And I wish I could tell you that's not the case, but until that bill is signed and we're not in it, I'm not going to tell you that we're out of the woods because something could happen that could put us back in the woods.”
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Peter Strozniak can be reached at [email protected].