Americans from all walks of life are benefiting from a strong, resilient, and dynamic economy, which boasts nearly six years of uninterrupted growth. While this economic landscape presents credit unions and affiliated organizations such as CUSOs with tremendous opportunities for innovation, growth, and enhancements to member services, it also brings real and often complex financial risks that can and must be managed.

The good news is that, through proactive management and implementation of forward looking strategies that identify, categorize, and respond to risk, credit unions today continue to prosper. The numbers tell much of the story. Credit unions serve over 89 million member owners and have accumulated more than $700 billion dollars in assets. I am particularly impressed that even in the current flattened yield curve environment, credit unions have posted an average net worth of 11.54 %. Against this backdrop, as a safety and soundness regulator, I constantly promote a regulatory approach that encourages an appropriate, but not excessive regime that empowers credit unions to optimize service to their members in a safe and financially prudent manner.

I am also committed to making certain that NCUA provides consistent and coherent guidance to credit unions and CUSOs. This January I hosted a summit at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, bringing together experts from the White House, the Federal Reserve, NCUA, and Wall Street, to discuss a broad range of risk management topics. The summit was a substantive effort to highlight not only trends in risk management, but also hands-on, practical strategies that credit unions can implement as they manage their balance sheets.