National Credit Union Administration Chairman Todd M. Harper said that it is incumbent on all credit unions to answer the call for a financial system that works for all during his remarks today at the NCUA’s fifth Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Summit in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

“It does not matter whether someone is Black, brown, white, or from some other spectrum of the racial rainbow, nor what ethnicity, disability, orientation, religion, or gender one identifies with,” Chairman Harper said. “Credit unions should work to lift up everyone, so our democracy can remain strong and succeed for the next two-and-a-half centuries. In doing so, the system of cooperative credit will remain faithful to its bedrock principle of ‘people helping people.’”

Chairman Harper also discussed the issues of economic freedom and the shrinking middle class, the fallout of economic insecurity, and the NCUA’s DEI efforts, saying “We have made good strides as an agency, but there is still much work to do, both by the NCUA and by credit unions.”

Chairman Harper’s remarks at the 2024 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Summit are available on the NCUA’s website.