2026 Annual Information Resource Management Strategic Plan

About NCUA

The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) was established by the U.S. Congress as an independent federal agency responsible for regulating, chartering, and supervising federal credit unions. NCUA operates and manages the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund (Share Insurance Fund), which insures the deposits of nearly 146 million credit union members across all federal credit unions and most state-chartered credit unions and has the full backing and credit of the United States. 

With the support of a robust and secure information resource infrastructure that enables maximum effectiveness and efficiency, NCUA protects the system of cooperative credit and its member-owners and contributes to the nation’s economic and financial stability.

IRM Strategic Plan Overview

The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (P.L. 104-13) requires agencies to develop and maintain an Information Resource Management (IRM) Strategic Plan, which must meet the requirements outlined in the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Circular No. A-130¹. NCUA’s 2026 IRM Strategic Plan describes the agency’s operational, budgetary, and strategic goals and investments related to its IRM program. These investments support NCUA’s strategic goals and performance indicators in its 2026–2030 Strategic Plan and 2026 Annual Performance Plan. NCUA is committed to optimizing its information systems and technology to increase efficiency and performance through enhanced data management, analytics, and automation.

NCUA’s IRM Strategic Plan also aligns with the President’s 2026 Management Agenda. By leveraging technology to deliver more secure services, NCUA will strengthen credit union oversight while safeguarding credit union members and the Share Insurance Fund.

Title II of the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policy Making Act of 2018 (Evidence Act) (P.L. 115-435)—known as the Open, Public, Electronic, and Necessary (OPEN) Government Data Act—bolsters federal requirements for data governance and transparency. It directs agencies to develop and maintain an Open Data Plan as part of their IRM Strategic Plan. Pursuant to this statutory requirement, NCUA’s current and planned activities support a publicly available data inventory and sharing data in an open format. The Open Data Plan documents NCUA’s efforts to establish and promote data management priorities, standards, policies, and practices across the enterprise. 

NCUA routinely monitors its performance in meeting the objectives outlined in this plan. If priorities or regulations change, the agency will update its IRM Strategic Plan accordingly. 

IRM Implementation Framework

The agency’s technology investments are driven by the following strategic themes and objectives:

• Creating a Culture of Customer Service Excellence
  • Strengthen communication channels and service accountability through clear definitions of service expectations, roles, and responsibilities.
  • Enhance NCUA’s information technology (IT) project intake and portfolio management practices to understand, evaluate, and support business needs in a timely, transparent manner.
  • Improve the user or customer experience across NCUA’s digital platforms by implementing a dedicated user experience program.
• Delivering Innovative and Reliable Technology Solutions
  • Advance the adoption of emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence-enabled tools to improve operational efficiency, data analysis, and decision making.
  • Modernize NCUA’s enterprise IT systems by replacing, retiring, consolidating, or enhancing legacy platforms and systems to improve reliability, security, and performance.
  • Strengthen NCUA’s acquisition and procurement capabilities by standardizing processes, leveraging enterprise and government-wide solutions, promoting transparency, and partnering with high-performing contractors.
  • Leverage government-wide technology platforms and shared services as needed to meet operational needs, reduce duplication, eliminate redundant investments, and maximize value.
• Strengthening Cybersecurity Resilience Against Evolving Threats
  • Advance Zero Trust² implementation efforts through identity, device, and access management enforcements aligned with federal cybersecurity directives.
  • Strengthen NCUA’s cyber operations, incident response capabilities, and threat intelligence integration to reduce risk and improve recovery readiness.
  • Sustain compliance with federal security and privacy mandates, including the Federal Information Security Modernization Act; Executive Order 14028, Improving the Nation's Cybersecurity; and evolving National Institute of Standards and Technology guidelines.
• Fostering An Environment for Continuous Innovation and Organizational Learning
  • Invest in IT workforce development by expanding role-based training and implementing targeted upskilling programs in cloud computing, artificial intelligence, software development, and automation.
  • Establish a technical governance framework to guide citizen developers and incorporate their solutions across the enterprise.
  • Strengthen enterprise data governance and management practices to improve data quality, reliability, and accessibility for examination and supervisory activities. 

Open Data Plan

The Evidence Act builds on longstanding federal principles for data quality, access, protection, and use. It establishes a government-wide framework to improve how federal data is managed and accessed to facilitate public transparency and evidence-building activities. The OPEN Government Data Act requires each federal agency to develop and maintain an Open Data Plan that describes ongoing efforts to make government data open, accessible, and reusable by the public.

On January 15, 2025, OMB issued Memorandum M-25-05, Phase 2 Implementation of the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018: Open Government Data Access and Management Guidance, which outlines specific requirements for agencies to implement their Open Data Plans. Under these requirements, NCUA’s Open Data Plan will be updated annually to document completed and planned actions that support the agency’s transparency, access, and public engagement goals.

In compliance with the Evidence Act, NCUA’s Chief Data Officer (CDO) manages the data lifecycle, oversees data governance, ensures data quality, and enables data-driven decision-making across the business. The CDO collaborates with technology and business leaders and publishes open data-related information on the agency’s NCUA.gov/data webpage.

NCUA incorporated open data objectives into its broader IRM planning, including staff training, technology acquisition, and procurement standards, to support openness and innovation. Key current or planned activities:

Modernized data collection practices and technology — To align its business objectives with NCUA’s Strategic Plan 2026–2030, NCUA continues to update enterprise IT systems and data management practices to improve reliability, security, and performance. The agency’s approach includes acquiring new technologies, updating existing platforms, and repurposing current platforms to meet open data goals. NCUA also continues to evaluate data governance platform options in the context of its data management maturity and operational objectives.

In 2026, NCUA will restructure and publish credit union datasets for enterprise analysis and reporting. As part of the agency’s modernization efforts, NCUA offers employee training on developing analytical reports using NCUA data. Connecting data modernization with training enables stakeholders to effectively adopt new technologies, empowering teams to leverage improved data capabilities for better decision making and operational success.

NCUA is minimizing reliance on non-digital data collection and has been actively incorporating open formats and licensing into its dissemination of publicly shared data assets, such as optional downloadable CSV files. Unless otherwise specified, NCUA’s publicly shared data assets are in the public domain³ by default and not subject to domestic copyright protection under 17 U.S.C. § 105, which will be reflected in the DCAT 3.0 Data.gov metadata schema.

Improved data usage metrics — NCUA uses the federal platform Analytics.USA.gov to collect, evaluate, and publish digital information on how data users engage with its data assets. The agency monitors metrics such as page level active users, file download activity, and other engagement indicators to understand how frequently public data assets are accessed. These measures help assess engagement from external (non-NCUA) users consistent with OMB M-25-05.

Public engagement strategy — NCUA’s established mechanisms, BImail@ncua.gov and NCUA’s AskNCUA platform, support ongoing dialogue with stakeholders by enabling feedback on how NCUA data can better serve the public. NCUA also engages with the public by using the federal rulemaking public comment process for revisions to the Call Report (Form 5300), the agency’s most widely used public data asset. These Federal Register notices provide structured opportunities for researchers, industry stakeholders, and members of the public to review proposed changes, submit comments, and influence how Call Report data is collected and made available. Together with AskNCUA, this recurring notice and comment process provides structured opportunities for NCUA to engage data users and consider public input where it is most impactful across the agency’s data activities.

Data inventory practices — NCUA has an enterprise data inventory process to evaluate and improve the timeliness, completeness, consistency, accuracy, usefulness, and availability of open government data assets. This process has been enhanced to meet OMB M‑25‑05 requirements by ensuring comprehensive coverage of agency data assets, clear prioritization criteria of public data asset reviews, more consistent use of machine‑readable formats, and a structured approach for continuously assessing and improving the quality and completeness of datasets shared on the Federal Data Catalog (44 U.S.C. § 3511). NCUA implemented an updated process to capture and refine all agency data assets annually by focusing on the depth and breadth of the inventory. This year, the agency is implementing procedures to add new data assets to the data inventory promptly. Once available, NCUA will also implement DCAT 3.0 metadata standards to provide more granular and robust metadata for Data.gov.

Continual Improvement — NCUA prioritizes the timeliness, completeness, consistency, accuracy, usefulness, and availability of its data with particular focus on NCUA Call Report data. The agency’s rigorous framework validates Call Report data through standard processes and verifies its accuracy and completeness before public release on NCUA.gov and Data.gov. These processes ensure consistency and reliability.

To meet its continual improvement objectives, NCUA, —along with eight other federal agencies—established joint data standards under the Financial Data Transparency Act of 2022⁴. Effective October 1, 2026, the joint standards are designed to promote interoperability of financial regulatory data across the applicable agencies by establishing a common identifier and formatting standards for entities, geographic locations, dates, and certain products and currencies.

Prioritizing Public Data Asset Review — NCUA prioritizes the review of public data assets based on public value, statutory importance, Freedom of Information Act disclosure requirements, and alignment with mission needs. Private citizens may request prioritization through BImail@ncua.gov or NCUA’s AskNCUA platform. NCUA evaluates these public requests and reports progress on the review and potential release of priority public data assets in plan updates.

Data Governance

NCUA’s Enterprise Data Program (EDP) is used to establish and promote data management priorities, standards, policies, and agency-wide practices. The EDP supports the agency’s compliance with the Evidence Act, OPEN Government Data Act, and OMB Memorandum M-25-05. These authorities inform how NCUA governs, secures, and uses data, enabling evidence-based policymaking, operational planning, and internal accountability. Leadership evaluates staffing and training needs to align workforce expertise with the IRM plan. 

NCUA remains committed to complying with all requirements in OMB M-25-05 and the provisions of 44 U.S.C. § 3511. Besides supporting internal mission operations, the EDP underpins NCUA’s Open Data Plan by ensuring the public data assets are properly inventoried, prioritized, and shared as per federal transparency and accountability standards.