NCUA’s Harper taps former CFPB official as chief of staff

Todd Harper, chairman of the National Credit Union Administration, said it has selected Catherine Galicia as his chief of staff.

Galicia joined NCUA in 2019 as senior policy counsel for Harper, who at the time was a board member. Before that she led the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Office of Legislative Affairs. She was vice president of government affairs for Banco Popular and has extensive experience inroles alongside members of the House and Senate on issues of banking, trade and finance, and more.

“Catherine’s breadth and depth of knowledge of financial services and consumer financial protection policy has served as a guiding light for me throughout my time on the NCUA board,” Harper said in a press release Monday. “Her vast bicameral experience on Capitol Hill, at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and as a leader in the private industry has established her as a trustworthy negotiating partner among stakeholders to forge consensus agreements. She is a champion for economic equity and justice and an invaluable advocate for 123 million credit union members across the nation.”

Galicia is one of the highest-ranking Latinas working in financial regulation, NCUA said.

Harper was named chairman of the agency last week and recently outlined many of his priorities, including helping credit unions manage the pandemic and increasing NCUA’s role in consumer protections. One of Harper’s recent predecessors in the chairmanship, Mark McWatters, recently called for the agency to reembrace bipartisanship and collaboration.

In December, NCUA Vice Chairman Kyle Hauptman appointed Sarah Canepa Bang, a former exectuive at CO-OP Financial Services, as his own senior adviser.