On Jan. 22, 2025, President Trump appointed NCUA Vice Chairman Kyle Hauptman as the new Chairman of the NCUA Board.  It is expected that Chairman Hauptman will attempt to take the agency in a different direction than his predecessor Todd Harper.  Among Chairman Hauptman’s priorities directly related to regulatory compliance are the following:

• Right-sizing credit unions’ obligations where possible under the Bank Secrecy Act, including NCUA’s regulations surrounding Suspicious Activity Reports.
• Codifying procedures to protect Americans from regulation-by-enforcement. For example, no enforcement action should ever set - even clarify - policy. In America and other free societies, the sequence is: set speed limits, then give speeding tickets (no one has any obligation to be aware of someone else’s ticket).
• Focusing on true financial inclusion, which means removing barriers to de novo credit unions and removing the ‘pain points’ that have led to fewer and fewer small credit unions. NCUA should be mindful that the only people who think compliance is easy are those that don’t have to do it.
• Re-assessing NCUA policies that may, even inadvertently, dissuade credit unions from serving low-income areas. This includes language around overdraft policies, particularly for credit unions located in states with especially punitive government late fees/penalties.

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