The NCUA’s mission, vision, and values guide the agency’s priorities and form the foundation of this strategic plan.
Mission
Enable access to financial services by facilitating safe, sound, and resilient credit unions.
Vision
Every community of common interest has the choice of cooperative credit.
Values
The employees of the NCUA are dedicated to maintaining confidence in our nation’s system of cooperative financial institutions. We uphold these core values in fulfilling our mission:
- Results: We deliver efficient, adaptive, and effective solutions to protect the Share Insurance Fund and ensure the safety and soundness of our nation’s federally insured credit unions.
- Integrity: We uphold the highest ethical and professional standards, acting with honesty, transparency, and fairness in service to credit unions and their members.
- Teamwork: We collaborate internally and externally to share knowledge, align efforts, and achieve common goals that advance the credit union movement.
- Accountability: We hold ourselves accountable to the public and one another, making decisions guided by expertise, sound judgment, responsibility, and impartiality.
Overview
Created by the U.S. Congress in 1970, the National Credit Union Administration is an independent federal agency that insures deposits at federally insured credit unions, protects the members who own credit unions, and charters and regulates federal credit unions.
A three-member Board of Directors oversees the NCUA’s operations by setting policy, approving budgets and adopting rules. Each Board Member is appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The president also designates the Chairman of the NCUA Board. No more than two Board members can be from the same political party, and each member serves a staggered six-year term.
The NCUA protects the safety and soundness of the credit union system by identifying, monitoring and reducing risks to the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund. Backed by the full faith and credit of the United States, the Share Insurance Fund provides up to $250,000 of federal share insurance to millions of account holders in all federal credit unions and most state-chartered credit unions.
The NCUA also plays a role in helping to ensure broader financial stability as a member of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC). This council is responsible for developing uniform principles, standards and report forms, and for promoting uniformity in the supervision of depository financial institutions. The NCUA’s Chairman is also a voting member of the Financial Stability Oversight Council, an interagency body tasked with identifying and responding to emerging risks and threats to the financial system.
The agency operates its headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia; its Asset Management and Assistance Center in Austin, Texas, to liquidate credit unions and recover assets; and three regional offices, which carry out the agency’s supervision and examination program.
