NCUA Board Member Todd M. Harper Statement on 2021 Annual Performance Plan

As Prepared for Delivery on January 14, 2021

Thank you, Chairman Hood, and thank you, Jim, for your informative presentation. The consideration of the Annual Performance Plan is very important to me. As I said last year, if you are going to measure performance, you need to have metrics to focus the attention of the agency on its priorities. The Annual Performance Plan does just that.

This year’s Annual Performance Plan evolves from last year’s plan and addresses several new priorities. I am especially pleased that this plan incorporates several of my recommendations. For example, to enable continuous risk analysis during the economic fallout related to the COVID-19 pandemic, this plan requires a quarterly review of those credit unions posing a high risk to the Share Insurance Fund. It also requires the development of an initiative to help educate consumers about COVID-19 relief efforts.

The 2021 plan additionally incorporates some important consumer financial protection metrics. For example, the Office of Consumer Financial Protection will continue to perform quality control reviews of examination reports to determine whether consumer financial protection supervisory priorities are sufficiently addressed. I have found the information gleaned from last year’s quarterly reviews extremely informative. And this year, the Annual Performance Plan provides a mechanism to communicate with credit unions about the common consumer financial protection problems we have identified during these quality control reviews.

Economic equality and justice is also extremely important to me. I have spoken often about it during the last year, and we have much work to do. We know that we have a wealth gap created by centuries of systemic racial discrimination, and the credit union movement must live up to its cooperative mission of providing access to credit, including those of modest means. That is why I am very pleased that this Annual Performance Plan requires staff to identify ways the NCUA may take action to support people of color in their efforts to build wealth.

In sum, this Annual Performance Plan is a good product. It reflects months of hard work by all offices across the agency, but especially the team in the Office of the Chief Financial Officer. Thank you, Jim, as well as to Lindsey and Eugene, and everyone else in OCFO who diligently put this Annual Performance Plan together. I will support this proposal.

Mr. Chairman, that concludes my comments.