Treasury staffer Crews nominated to lead NCUA

• Key insight: Trump nominated John Crews, a Treasury Department official with congressional ties, to lead the National Credit Union Administration as the agency navigates a period of upheaval.
• What’s at stake: The NCUA has been operating without a quorum after Trump moved to fire its two Democratic board members, part of a broader White House effort to exert greater executive control over independent agencies.
• Forward look: Crews is not expected to shift the agency’s direction significantly from his predecessor, given his existing role advising Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on financial policy.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has announced John Crews to head the National Credit Union Administration. 

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Crews, who is currently the deputy assistant secretary for financial institutions policy at the Treasury Department, previously worked on Capitol Hill for House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., and for the Senate Banking Committee under Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho. 

He would join as current NCUA Chairman Kyle Hauptman heads to the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, a nonprofit corporation charged with overseeing the accounting industry under the auspices of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Hauptman said in January after he was appointed to the PCAOB that he would remain at NCUA until his successor at NCUA is confirmed.

Crews’ appointment comes amid a period of upheaval for the NCUA. Trump has tried to fire the body’s previous Democratic chairman, Todd Harper, and his fellow Democratic board member Tanya Otsuka. It’s part of a larger effort by the Trump administration to redraw boundaries between independent agencies and the White House. 

At the NCUA, Trump has asserted the ability to fire members of the opposing party without cause, and to run agencies that Congress has set up as being led by bipartisan boards as executive agencies like any other. 

The NCUA is unique, however, in that its governing statute requires a quorum of two members to govern. With one chair and no board members, the NCUA has been operating without a quorum since April 2025. The agency has in the past asserted that it has the authority to operate with only a chairman. 

“It is the NCUA’s long-held view that a single Board Member constitutes a quorum when there are no other Board Members,” the agency said last year. 

The single-chairman structure comes as the credit union industry continues to grow and become more concentrated, with many institutions transforming from local small dollar lenders to nationwide enterprises, some of which are snapping up community banks as they expand. 

Hauptman will remain at the NCUA until Crews or another replacement is confirmed by the Senate. Crews, who already advises Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on financial policy matters, isn’t likely to represent a change in policy from Hauptman at the NCUA.