A Direct Line Blog

By Donya Parrish, MCU VP Risk Management

At a recent in-person meeting with other credit union leagues, Karen Smith (MCU SVP and Chief Advocacy Officer) and I had a fantastic opportunity. We were able to spend half a day with NCUA Western Regional Director Julie Cayse and her three associate regional directors.

It was an open dialogue that covered a wide range of topics, gave us a peek into her intentions across the 22 states the region covers, and left us feeling inspired about the level of dedication the office has to your credit union’s success! The primary takeaway was that they have had a huge reduction in staff, spent 2025 “blocking and tackling,” and are now staffed and ready to move forward as partners to the leagues and your credit union’s leadership for the benefit of your members and the communities you serve. Will everything look the same as it did before this year? Absolutely not! They have directives from NCUA Chairman Hauptman and the new administration to focus on and constraints to work within, and are doing so thoughtfully and intentionally.

Julie Cayse mentioned repeatedly that she prefers a credit union to pick up the phone and call them if there are questions, issues, or possible negative things coming. This enables them to be a valuable partner and assist with solutions. At this point, they are seeing a few cracks in the economy, and it is not known how many of them will develop further. She mentioned a few areas of possible general concern:

• Rising liquidity crunch
• Charge-offs and delinquencies are up (.55% and .77% respectively)
• Stress in the portfolios for credit cards, unsecured, used auto, and commercial office space
• USDA/SBA guaranteed loans are not meeting the guarantee requirements
• Ag underwriting standards are an issue with economic challenges in some mid-west areas
• Accounting and GL challenges at credit unions of all sizes
• Integration with old systems is not going well and is creating problems that may not be uncovered until a year or two after the conversion

Overall, Julie is hoping to be more proactive and collaborative to support credit unions and less reactive to situations that are beyond the point of assisting or providing support. With the economy getting their attention, now is the time to see your examiner and the Western Region office as your partner to success. We all want a future with credit unions leading the way to support member financial success!

Contact the Western Region NCUA office by email at WesternMail@ncua.gov or by phone at 602.302.6000. We plan to have a meeting with Julie and our Montana credit unions in the coming months, so stay tuned for more details.