NCUA headquarters, Washington, D.C. Credit/NCUA
It’s been five days since President Donald Trump fired NCUA Board Members Todd Harper and Tanya Otsuka, leaving only Board Chair Kyle Hauptman to run the agency. That's five days of questions with very few answers or clarity from the agency.
On Friday the agency put out its first and only statement concerning the firings, but that statement, according to the NCUA, did not come from Hauptman.
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The statement acknowledged that Harper and Otsuka were “no longer employed” at the NCUA, and that the NCUA has legal and historical precedent for the agency to be run by one member of the Board.
To emphasize, the NCUA said the statement was not attributed to Chair Hauptman. This is a unique situation for the agency, despite one other time in history when there was only one member of the Board for a period of time. What’s unique for the NCUA is inherently unique for credit unions.
Two legal experts CU Times has spoken with said it’s “weird” and “odd” that the industry hasn’t heard anything directly from the head of the credit union regulating agency in the aftermath of the firings.
One source emailed CU Times after the release of Friday’s statement from the NCUA: “You’re the Chair of the goddamn agency – you have to say something.”
America’s Credit Unions President/CEO Jim Nussle acknowledged Hauptman's silence during Monday’s press call. “He really has not said anything yet.”
When asked if he feels like the industry should be hearing from Hauptman, Nussle said, “I do.”
Nussle added he and credit unions would like to know if Hauptman’s priorities have changed.
“Is there anything new, in particular, that we should understand about how the Chairman will approach this interim period where there are two vacancies on the board? That would be my question,” Nussle said.
Another question yet to be addressed is the status of the NCUA workforce.
An unknown number of employees from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have been inside the NCUA since at least April 10 to presumably analyze the agency’s funding, budgets and workforce. Since its inception at the beginning of President Trump’s second term, DOGE has been tasked to reduce the size and increase efficiencies of all federal agencies.
The NCUA has repeatedly stated it has no comment on any actions happening inside the agency.
According to sources both inside and outside of the NCUA, DOGE has been looking to reduce the number of employees by 18-20% by either taking early retirement or buyouts.
On Monday, Nussle said he has also heard that range of workforce reduction.
“We believe it's somewhere in the 20% range, is what is being either pursued or considered at this point in time.” Nussle added that reduction number does not concern him at this point. “But at this point in time, there's nothing that suggests this is impacting the safety and soundness of credit unions or the industry.”
As of March 27, the NCUA had 1,209 employees. If a 20% reduction is implemented, that would reduce the number of agency employees by 241.
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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.
