The person in charge of the federal regulator that oversees the nation’s credit unions will step down after more than six years in the post.
Debbie Matz was
nominated to the board of the National Credit Union Administration in by President George W. Bush and confirmed in March 2002 .
Matz was nominated by President Barack Obama to
serve as chairman in 2009 — at a time when corporate credit union failures threatened the entire sector.
A statement Wednesday from the NCUA noted that the corporate credit unions at the time held $50 billion in toxic assets, while the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund had only $8 billion in assets.
“We worked around the clock to prevent the collapse of the credit union system, when the outcome was really in doubt,” Matz said in today’s announcement. “My top priority was to save as many credit unions as we could, minimize total losses, rebuild the insurance fund and stabilize the credit union system. We then focused on shoring up gaps in supervision, regulations, policies and procedures that threatened safety and soundness, and put new safeguards in place to stop the hemorrhaging and prevent the system from failing.”
The NCUA has since recovered $2.4 billion in settlements with firms involved in the issuance and sale of faulty mortgage-backed securities to corporate credit unions.
“I’m confident we will collect even more on behalf of credit unions in the future,” Matz added.
Today, the NCUA supervises more than 6,000 credit unions with $1.2 trillion in assets.
Still, the credit union sector continues to struggle — with 14 credit union failures last year versus just eight bank failures.
And this year, while no banks have yet failed, four credit unions have collapsed.
Wednesday’s statement from the NCUA indicated that Matz will step down at the end of April.
She is the eighth NCUA board chairman and the only NCUA board member ever confirmed by the Senate for a second term.
“We appreciate Chairman Matz’s years of service to NCUA and the credit union industry,” National Association of Federal Credit Unions President and Chief Executive Officer Dan Berger said in a written statement. “NAFCU has had a productive working relationship with the agency under Chairman Matz’s leadership that has led to important regulatory relief for the credit union industry.”
