ALEXANDRIA, Va. New NCUA Board member Rick Metsger vowed that credit unions can expect him to exercise an independent judgment on the three-person panel, even though he has been on the board a little over a month and just moved to Washington from his native Oregon.
“I don’t think it’s anybody’s role is to be a rubber stamp,” Metsger, told Credit Union Journal this morning in his first public interview. It was a reference to suggestions that the board and its agenda are dominated by the chairman. “I don’t plan to be a rubber stamp; and I don’t think the Chairman (Debbie Matz) really wants that. I didn’t come here to do anything less than to give thoughtful understanding to the issues and think independently.”
The new NCUA Board member emphasized that he comes to the job with years of experience in credit unions; as a director of Oregon’s biggest credit union, OnPoint Community CU (then known as Portland Teachers CU), as a member of tiny Mt. Hood CU, and as a member and chairman of the state Senate Committee on Business and Commerce, where he helped craft Oregon’s own landmark field of membership law. He also ran his own public relations firm that represented the Northwest CU Association.
NCUA's newest board member said he expects to disagree with his colleagues at times but plans to air his differences in private—as he said he did in the state Senate. “If you do the job properly there’s not a lot of chance for controversy,” Metsger insisted.
Metsger, who was sworn in Aug. 23, said his orientation has not been disrupted from the federal government shutdown, as NCUA, as an independent agency is self-funded and is continuing to operate. “It’s been business as usual around here,” he stated.
The new NCUA Board member has targeted several issues among his chief priorities. They include NCUA’s proposals on a mandatory interest rate risk proposal; on financial derivatives; and the growing regulatory burden and its effect on small rural credit unions’ survival efforts.
Metsger said he was first approached about serving on the NCUA Board two years ago by Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, a member of the Banking Committee, but the nomination went to Washington credit union executive Carla Decker, who eventually withdrew from consideration. The two-year delay left Metsger just four years to serve on the six-year term.
