Credit Union Exam Solutions Presents With Flying Colors

Hey everyone, this is Mark TriCal with
another episode of With Flying Colors.

Are you going to need a hard
hat in your credit union because

of the NCA reorganization?

Or is NCA staff gonna need a hard hat
or should I just take this hard hat off?

Well, I'm gonna probably talk
through a few of those things.

By the way, I got this hard hat
when a staff member who shall Rena.

May who shall remain
nameless gave this to me.

After we got through a particularly
rough budget process with the NCA

Board, I came into work one day and I
had this on my on my chair, and it's

one of my prize possessions for my
time at NCA as executive Director.

All right, so you can take me seriously.

I'm going to take this hat off.

And we'll set it down over there.

By the way, if you're listening on
the podcast, you're saying what hat

This is also going onto YouTube, and
this is a special edition episode

based on what NCUA just communicated.

Kyle Halman, Larry fao, and one of
Larry's staff members, Amanda Parkhill

had discussions about the NCUA buyout
program, which was driven by President

Trump and initiatives to have a downsize
in force, a reduction in force at federal

agencies, and they walk through all that.

And I'm going to walk through a
highlight version of what it means for

credit unions, what it means for NCA.

I'm gonna follow that up.

A couple additional podcasts, and
I'll talk through that here at

the end, and you can expect them.

To come out in the next
couple of Tuesdays.

As a reminder most new episodes
come out Tuesdays, Thursdays.

We have our Evergreen episodes, which
are topics that that live forever that

may have a new intro to them because
they of things that we're seeing in

credit unions with our clients in
our conversations, et cetera, et.

Et cetera, et cetera.

So without further ado let's talk
a little bit about what happened

at NCUA at the board meeting today.

And I'm calling this podcast
Trump's Workforce Cuts hit NCUA.

What's changing and what's next?

As a result of President Trump Executive
Order, 1, 4, 2, 1, 0, federal agencies

were being pushed and are being
pushed to downsize and streamline.

They offered the buyout
program, the buyout.

Program has closed for 99%
of those who accepted it.

And they have some near final stats
that I'm gonna walk through here.

NCA was striving to AEA
achieve a 20% headcount.

Headcount cut by the end of the year,
and why by the end of the year, 'cause

the Trump initiatives were to get to
a certain size by the end of the year.

It's married to the Trump anticipation,
so that would be about 250 people.

Out of the 1200 employees that were in
the budget for NCUA for the year it's

it's been reported here and elsewhere
that they've been very successful

with the programs that they have.

Number two.

A point I wanna make is that
the, these are not layoffs.

They did not have to go to an
official reduction in force.

Why is that?

Because the voluntary programs
were so well received by

staff for whatever reason.

It could have been because of the money,
could have been because of the volume

of people that NCA has who is ready to
retire or eligible for early retirement.

But in any event, because NCUA is a.

Independent agency, LL some, although some
would argue that independence is being

challenged by the Trump administration
because they're independent, they have

more powers to pay higher amounts, and
they were able to offer $50,000 lump sums

for those people who agreed to sign away
their career, sign away that they would be

retiring early or by the end of the year.

It's voluntary.

No one was forced out.

That's a good thing.

That's a good thing for everybody.

The target was met and then some,
the they've got several different

acronyms for what they did.

I'm not gonna get into those details here.

But their goal was to get about
225, as I mentioned, 250, excuse me.

Their goal was to get 217 participants,
but actually they had 297 that took it.

The central office.

And by the way, after.

Rescissions after people who
took it and then decided later

that they wanted to stay.

They're expecting about 250 to be gone.

There were net 257 that took it.

There's 14 that still are
within their window for.

Deciding that they want to pull it back.

So in the end there will be between
243 and 257 NCA staff that take it.

There was a stronger participation
by those in the central office

versus those in the regions or ones.

Again, ones is the Office of National
Examined Supervision, regions plus

ones is what is known as the field.

Central office is what you would
call generally mission support.

Although the office of
examination of insurance, you

could argue goes both ways, but.

30% of the folks that were
in the central office.

So that could be attorneys, that
could be the office of cure,

where field membership is done.

That could be human resources, that could
be the office of the executive director.

30% of staff took it at that
level, 20% of the field took it.

And you could argue that's because
there's more senior people in the

central office, which is what.

What they said was the case.

The, for whatever reason is generally
going to be a good thing because they've

built up the central office over time
and those central office positions are

not what you'd, I don't wanna say they're
not productive because I fully believe

in mission support, but those hours do
not directly get spent in credit unions.

To do exams, and that's where
it impacts credit unions.

These people going away, these 20%,
they're not gonna be the new folks.

They're not gonna be the people
that have been here 10 years.

They're not gonna be the people that
have been here 15 years, not gonna

be the people that are 20 or 23.

There were stories of that.

I heard of people who wanted to be part
of the early buyout but couldn't because

they didn't have the 25 years in too.

Do early retirement.

And by the way, when they do
early retirement, they take a big

hit on what their retirement is.

But some people may have been financially
positioned, some people thought, Hey,

I'll take this 50 K kicker and I got a
job offer that I can go do something else.

30% of central office folks left
20% in the regions short term.

That's a good thing.

Long term, that's probably, it's
probably better if you're gonna lose some

people in the central office, although
I did hear they lost all of their

human resource supervisors and who's
going to process all this paperwork?

You might say if all those folks are gonna
be leaving and some of 'em have already

left there are going to be situations.

And NCA talked about the fact
that some places were hit harder

and they're working around that.

They didn't go into the specifics.

And I'll talk about a little bit of
that down the road in another podcast.

Okay, so they hit their target and then
some central office took the biggest hit.

There was some discussion around
the hiring freeze that Trump put

in place being until at least July
15th, emphasis on July 15th at least.

Because once you hit that point
in time and by the way, last Trump

administration, they indicated, and
I believe this is true, that the

hiring freeze lasted about a year.

Under the hiring freeze, assuming they
don't extend it, you can only replace

for every Ford jobs that went away.

You can only hire one now that, the
problem with saying, okay, they can

start hiring and filling positions in
July, is that most of these people are

on the rolls until the end of the year.

That in order to entice people
to leave, they said, we will pay

you till the end of the year.

If you leave, you can just go on leave.

If you stay, we'll give you
a 50% bonus in your pay.

So you're essentially making 50% of
what you could to work, but you're

getting paid one and a half times.

So they can build up some cash and cash
prizes and they can't really replace any

of these folks until the end of the year.

Now I did a previous post or podcast
where I showed you there are no

federal jobs out on USA jobs.gov,

which is where everybody posts them.

It's a long tail to get those.

People up and hired.

So hopefully at some juncture they're able
to say, okay, we get to October, November.

The Trump administration says, yes,
you can start hiring for next year,

and they can start gearing up.

One of the challenges they'll have is they
don't have a lot of people in HR right

now, so it's gonna be a bumpy road, and
that's where the that's where the hard hat

could be a problem for some folks at NCUA.

All right.

I think it'll be less so at n for
the credit unions, but you will

feel it and we'll get into that in.

Perhaps another episode that's coming out.

Alright, so that gets me to the
internal realignment that's coming.

There's a lot of verbiage that
I've gone through and come up with.

They talking about potentially
streamlining operations alluding to fewer

departments, saying that there, at the
time there were 23 department heads.

What does that mean?

That some of them have left?

Yes.

But I also think it means that
they're going to be shrinking.

Some departments, and I'm going
to save my details relative to

that, to another episode that will
be coming out specifically on.

The shrinkage at NCUA and
the reconfiguring at NCUA.

I'm gonna apply what I know for my 34
years at NCUA, my 10 years in the office

of the executive director, seven of which
as executive director working directly

for the NCA board, and I'll walk through.

How I think they might realign.

'cause there's some pretty obvious
things that I would do if I was there.

And I will probably come up with a a
flow chart, a org chart of what I think

NCUA should look like moving forward
based on what they are planning on doing.

They also, it talked about
exam cycles being extended

for cr strong credit unions.

Talked about what, the timeline
for the billion dollar to $15

billion credit unions that those
can now be stretched up to.

Up to every 20 months,
smaller credit unions.

So smaller being under a billion
could be between 14 and 24 months.

And they talked about how that's
driven by Camel, how that's

driven by management consistency.

They made reference to one of their
websites on the exam flexibility

program, which I want to go do some
research on, and I thought, I heard

them say that if you're a Camel
Three or Newly Chartered, that you'll

see us every eight to 12 months.

That's different.

It used to be six months that
you had to have an examination, a

follow-up examination at a code three.

It's quite possible that
they're, they put that in there.

Only relative to full exams because
camel threes, fours and fives are

gonna get them more frequently.

Frequently.

But I'm going to be watching what's going
to happen to Camel code threes 'cause

I'll be very surprised if they don't
try and keep those on a six month cycle.

'cause if they don't, that will lead
to bigger losses in credit unions.

And oh, by the way in the earlier briefing
they talked about the insurance fund.

I will have a separate.

Podcast on that.

They've changed their, they're very
excited about their new dashboard.

The public can't see all
of the dashboard yet.

I'm going to look at the old PowerPoints
they did and how much they revealed

about camel codes and see if they're
being as transparent as they used to be.

I don't know the answer to that
because they only had two sentences

on Camel Threes going down.

No references to four or five.

They quickly showed the screen
on the camels, which would've had

some detail about fours and fives.

I want to dig into that and I'll have
a podcast relative to that to see

if I believe that their transparency
has stayed the same, gotten worse or

gotten better, but stay tuned for that.

That'll be a separate
podcast coming out as well.

They also talked about budget savings
of 75 million in 2026, so again.

N NCAA's budget will be tight this
year, and that's because they're

paying 50 k roughly to everybody who
is going away as a lovely parting gift.

And I say that tongue in cheek.

To encourage someone to leave because of
the safety of of their government job.

They needed to entice 'em.

So I'm it's a little tongue in cheek
hey, if you're an NCOA staffer listening

to this no, ill will makes sense
that they gave you a decent amount

of money to make a decision to leave.

Et cetera, et cetera.

But $75 million in savings
anticipated in 2026.

That would be salary, that would
be benefits, that would be payments

they make to OPM for those benefits
that would be travel related to

those people who are no longer going
to be there, et cetera, et cetera.

And they talked about the fact
that they will take some of that

money, improve their technology.

They talked about the
fact that they would be.

Using that technology to
do exams in better ways.

They talked about that some of that
money will go back to credit unions in

a reduced operating fee, which is good.

But again, as I always, I.

Like to say, and it's something
NCA never really talked about.

The cost of the NCA program on a
credit union's budget is essentially

a little bit less than what credit
unions do to train their staff

to go to CUNA meetings, America's
credit unions, et cetera, et cetera.

And so it's really not all that material
even though the trades like to make

it a big deal, but it is saving.

So I don't wanna discount that as well.

And if you're a credit
union that would lose money.

If but for a reduced, and so a budget,
I'm sure you'd rather make money and

save a few thousand dollars depending
on where you're at in the cascade

of assets and the costs of all that.

So there was a quote about Less
with less, not more, with less.

He's, he helpmann, said, we're not
gonna do more with, we're not gonna

cut, have less and be able to do more.

That's a nonsense type statement.

So that's, it's good that they
have that reality, but they're re.

Rethinking processes.

They imply that they've got a good lot
of good suggestions from NCOA and they

joke that one of the things that they,
one of the suggestions from NCA staff

that they would not be taking was to
have the thermostat at 78 in August.

Little bit of tongue and cheek there.

They got a good laugh about that.

And what else?

Tech and talent and tech and
talent investments are coming.

They implied that they're gonna have
better technology and that they're

gonna do hiring and that they're
gonna fill some critical roles.

They talked about, and I've
posted on LinkedIn a little bit,

inwe will rise to the occasion.

They are losing a lot of really
talented people because if you're

eligible to retire, you've been there
a long time and they're, they've

made reference to executives I know.

I've had conversations with
some executives who I know are

leaving, some I know are staying.

I don't wanna get into specifics
here but they're losing a lot

of really talented people.

Let's just leave it at that.

But there's people in the wings.

I can figure out who I think might
take fu future positions if I was

still there, who I'd be saying, Hey,
I think you should apply for this job.

Not pre-selection, by the way.

No.

You're just encouraging people
to, to participate in the

opportunities that are here.

And there will be people
that rise to the occasion.

We used to call that a deep selection
when someone's been there a short

time, but has a lot of opportunity.

May not be perfectly
positioned for a position yet.

There's gonna be people that will
rise to the occasion relative to that.

Alright.

That's it in a nutshell
here on this first episode.

Central office hit harder.

Exams hit pretty hard.

There's gonna be a realignment coming.

I'll have a separate podcast on that.

And again, I'm gonna put
the hard hat back on.

I think NCA staff should be, be
prepared for some challenges,

but they are up to the occasion.

You don't wanna, take a blunt force trauma
to the head credit unions your exam.

You might not have the same
examiner, you might not have

the same supervisory examiner.

But the reality is you will have an
exam and if you find out that you need

some help with that, who to reach out
to you can reach out to find out how we

help our clients save time and money.

With NCUA so that they have
a smoother exam process.

That's it for this episode.

I hope you have a fabulous Memorial
Day weekend and that you're somewhere

in the country where it's not raining.

As always, I appreciate you listening.

I hope you'll listen again soon.

This is Mark TriCal signing
off with flying colors.