Todd M. Harper was nominated by President Donald J. Trump to serve on the NCUA Board on February 6, 2019. The U.S. Senate confirmed him to serve the remainder of a partial term on March 14, 2019, and he was sworn in as a member of the NCUA Board on April 8, 2019. President Joseph R. Biden, Jr., then designated him as the NCUA’s twelfth Chairman on January 20, 2021, and Mr. Harper served in this role until January 20, 2025.
On August 6, 2021, President Biden renominated Mr. Harper for a full term on the NCUA Board. On June 8, 2022, Board Member Harper was confirmed by the Senate for a term expiring on April 10, 2027. His investiture ceremony for that term took place on July 11, 2022.
Credit unions run in the fabric of Mr. Harper’s family. His father, Dr. Ronald Small, started a teachers’ credit union in Illinois in the 1960s. And, his father’s father led the board of a soap factory credit union in Indiana in the 1930s.
As an NCUA Board Member and previous Chairman, Mr. Harper has led the agency in addressing unprecedented challenges, like the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2023 liquidity crisis. His work at the NCUA has also made the credit union system safer and more resilient with the implementation of risk-based capital standards for complex credit unions and increased fairness and protections for credit union members by enhancing the supervision of fair lending laws and problematic overdraft fee programs.
Mr. Harper has additionally advanced equity to ensure the credit union system works better for all Americans, especially those of modest means, with the creation of a customized framework for examining minority depository institutions and convening annual diversity, equity, and inclusion summits between 2021 and 2024. For his efforts to create a more equitable financial system, Mr. Harper was inducted into the African American Credit Union Coalition’s Hall of Fame in February 2023.
Prior to joining the NCUA Board, Mr. Harper served as director of the agency’s Office of Public and Congressional Affairs and chief policy advisor to former Chairmen Debbie Matz and Rick Metsger. He is the first member of the NCUA’s staff to become an NCUA Board Member. He is also the first member of the NCUA staff to have served as NCUA Chairman. And, Mr. Harper is the first member of the LGBTQ+ community to lead a federal financial services regulatory agency.
En Sr. Harper trabajó previamente para la Cámara de Representantes de los Estados Unidos como subdirector de personal del Subcomité sobre Mercados de Capitales, Seguro y Empresas Patrocinadas por el Gobierno, y como director legislativo y asistente legislativo sénior del exrepresentante Paul Kanjorski (D-Pennsylvania). En estos roles, contribuyó a todas las leyes importantes sobre servicios financieros, desde la promulgación Ley de Modernización de Servicios Financieros Gramm-Leach-Bliley en 1999 hasta la aprobación de la Ley Dodd-Frank de reforma de Wall Street y protección del consumidor en 2010.
Durante la Gran Recesión, el Sr. Harper coordinó las primeras audiencias en el Congreso para explorar la creación de un Fondo temporario de estabilización de cooperativas de ahorro y crédito empresariales. También encabezó los esfuerzos de los empleados en la Cámara de los Estados Unidos para garantizar la promulgación de una ley para bajar los costos de la administración del Fondos para la estabilización corporativa y del Fondo Nacional de Seguro de Depósitos de Cooperativas de Ahorro y Crédito.
El Sr. Harper llevó a cabo negociaciones con el personal durante varias sesiones de la Ley Dodd-Frank, incluida la enmienda Kanjorski para facultar a los reguladores a controlar y desarmar preventivamente instituciones y propuestas que son "demasiado grandes para fracasar", para así mejorar el poder de la Comisión de Bolsa y Valores. También desarrolló el marco legislativo para el proyecto de ley que creó la Oficina de Seguro Federal para monitorear asuntos de seguros nacionales e internacionales.
When he served as NCUA Board Chairman, Mr. Harper was also a voting member of the Financial Stability Oversight Council, which was created by the Dodd-Frank Act, and he represented the NCUA on the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, which he chaired between 2021 and 2023.
Mr. Harper holds an undergraduate degree in business analysis from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business and a graduate degree in public policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He has appeared on CNBC broadcasts and testified before Congress more than a dozen times. Mr. Harper resides in Arlington, Virginia, with Tom Beers, his partner of 30-plus years, and their cats, Vonnegut and Bartok.
