DETROIT National Credit Union Administration Board Chairman Debbie Matz, speaking to the African-American Credit Union Coalition’s annual conference, said minority credit unions are essential to fostering economic diversity and opportunity in communities across America, particularly low-income and underserved communities.
Matz also reiterated NCUA’s commitment to supporting greater diversity in its own workforce and in credit unions throughout the nation.
“Minority credit unions perform an extremely important function,” Matz said. “They are often the only insured institutions serving low-income and underserved areas. Your being there making loans to small businesses so they can provide jobs, and offering loans so your members can buy a car or a home or send a child to college has helped hard-working families in those communities pave a path toward financial security.”
Matz also reported on NCUA’s efforts to promote diversity, including:
* Increased diversity of its workforce at all levels.
* Significant expansion of the percentage of contracts and the size of contracts awarded to minority- and women-owned businesses.
* Creation of the Office of Minority and Women Inclusion.
* A proposed Minority Credit Union Preservation Program.
“It is very important to preserve, to the extent we can, both the special character and the number of minority credit unions serving their communities, especially in underserved communities,” Matz noted. “The policy proposed at our July Board meeting will align NCUA with federal law and the programs of other federal regulators to preserve minority depository institutions.”
