adminPresident Barak Obama tapped NCUA Vice Chairman Rick Metsger to be the ninth Chairman of the NCUA Board, taking over the helm from vice chairman Debbie Matz, who stepped down April 30.
Metsger joined the NCUA as a board member in August 2013 and was unanimously elected vice chairman just over one year later. In that role, Metsger focused on modernizing regulations and the federal credit union charter in order to provide credit unions with greater flexibility to innovate and grow, as well as regulatory relief. Metsger led the agency’s efforts to update its regulations concerning fixed assets and credit unions’ fields-of-membership regulation.
In a release yesterday by the NCUA, Metsger said, “I deeply appreciate the trust President Obama has placed in me, and I look forward to the challenges and opportunities ahead as the agency strives to protect credit union members and provide a modern regulatory framework for credit unions to innovate and grow safely and soundly. NCUA has a hard-working staff dedicated to the agency’s mission, and I am proud to serve with them.”
Metsger, a former teacher and broadcast journalist, served in the Oregon State Senate from 1999 until 2011 and was elected Senate President Pro Tempore in 2009. During his Senate service, he was chief sponsor of legislation the state enacted to expand fields of membership for state-chartered credit unions.
Metsger also served on the Oregon State Treasury Deficit Policy Advisory Commission and as a director of Financial Beginnings, a non-profit organization providing financial education to children and young adults. Metsger was a member of the board of the Portland Teachers Credit Union for eight years, where he also held the office of vice chairman.
