Fred R. Becker, Jr. 517

Fred R. Becker, Jr., joined NAFCU as president and CEO in January 2000, and he has worked relentlessly since then to champion credit union issues with federal regulatory agencies, The White House and Congress. He has also dramatically increased NAFCU’s direct contact with its membership and outreach to the national media.

Under Becker’s leadership, NAFCU has forged a strong working relationship with the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) to address such key issues as community chartering, field of membership and promotion of the credit union share insurance fund.

NAFCU’s efforts have led to heightened awareness of credit union issues on Capitol Hill. Most recently, NAFCU lobbied, in concert with NCUA, to secure parity for credit unions in the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act. This legislation increased the level of federal deposit insurance for credit unions in individual share accounts. NAFCU and the NCUA also collaborated to secure the removal of the existing cap on the lending authority of the Central Liquidity Facility, a government corporation established in 1998 to ease credit union liquidity needs.

In addition, Becker spearheaded NAFCU’s efforts on the Regulatory Relief Act of 2006. NAFCU has also actively lobbied since 2003 to revise limits on member business lending and reform credit union capital standards. NAFCU has backed legislation, the Credit Union Regulatory Improvements Act (CURIA), designed to modernize credit union legislation. To date, NAFCU has helped CURIA garner 150 co-sponsors in the House. A Senate version of CURIA was introduced in Spring 2008.

On the media front, Becker’s insightful letters to the editor and interviews have appeared in USA Today, U.S. News and World Report, The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Becker has also appeared on national and regional television and radio outlets including Fox Business Network, NewsChannel 8, Bloomberg Radio, Wall Street Journal Radio and many others.

Becker is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. He holds a JD from the Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William and Mary. He also holds an MBA from Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University (Virginia Tech).

The National Association of Federal Credit Unions (www.nafcu.org) is a direct membership organization representing federally chartered credit unions.