Better Markets filed a comment letter to the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) regarding its proposed budget for 2025-2026. We strongly supported the budget proposal and emphasized that an agency with a mission as important as the NCUA—directly protecting the savings of Main Street Americans and small businesses—should not be underfunded.
Why It Matters. The NCUA provides vital support for Main Street Americans and financial stability. The NCUA regulates and supervises more than 4,500 federally-insured credit unions, operating in every state in the country as well as Washington, DC; Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Guam. These credit unions serve more than 141 million account holders and have more than $2.3 trillion in total assets, as of June 30, 2024. The NCUA also provides critical support to credit unions that serve minority and low-income individuals and communities throughout the country.
What We Said. It is in the best interest of the American people and financial stability to have well-funded regulators with well-trained staff and analytical tools to carry out their mission effectively. The NCUA’s proposed budget for 2025-2026 is higher than prior years, but as our comment letter and the chart below shows, the NCUA budget is actually far below the budgets of other federal banking regulators. The proposed increases will fund necessary staffing and analytical tools to fight threats to the credit union system, such as cybersecurity.
Bottom Line. The NCUA’s work is vital to the smooth and fair functioning of our financial services industry. To cut corners on the agency’s budget would be a grave mistake, and the potential damage that could be caused to the NCUA or the American people could be disastrous. Not only should the 2025-2026 budget be approved, but further analysis should be done to understand why the NCUA funding is lower than other federal banking regulatory agencies and evaluate whether more increases are required to protect against ever-evolving threats such as cybersecurity and new frontiers such as artificial intelligence.
