It’s been a busy week for the National Credit Union Administration.

Among other actions, the regulator this week banned four former credit union employees from working at any federally insured institution.

One of those was Gloria Hall, a former manager of Prairie View Federal Credit Union in Prairie View, Texas.

According to the NCUA, Hall pled guilty to embezzlement after stealing more than $211,000 over a period of two years. Hall said she used the money to pay her bills, including “fraudulently obtained” loans.

As a result of the theft, Prairie View incurred significant losses, eventually necessitating its merger with Cy-Fair Federal Credit Union in early 2022.

The agency has issued 20 prohibition orders so far this year.

Also this week, the NCUA unveiled its budget for 2025.

The proposed combined budget is $433 million, which represents a 12.2% increase from the 2024 budget.

The 2025 combined staff draft budget is, however, $0.3 million lower than the 2025 funding level previously approved by the NCUA board as part of the two-year 2024–2025 budget.

The agency will hold a public budget briefing at its central office on Nov. 22.

On Thursday, the NCUA board named Katherine Easmunt as the agency’s chief ethics counsel, effective Nov. 3.

Easmunt will oversee the Office of Ethics Counsel, which certifies the agency’s compliance with federal ethics laws and regulations, promotes a culture of accountability and integrity and helps ensure the success of the NCUA’s ethics program.

Easmunt also manages the NCUA’s anti-harassment program.

Finally, the regulator took a hard stance against Vystar Credit Union after the institution was hit with $1.5 million in penalties by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The $14.7 billion-asset credit union was fined after the botched rollout of its digital banking platforms in 2022.

Shortly after the Jacksonville, Florida-based company’s new virtual platform was made available to members, it became unstable, intermittently losing functionality and abandoning processes initiated by members, such as attempts to log into their accounts.

The CFPB said it worked with the NCUA in its investigation of VyStar’s illegal activity.

On top of the fine, Vystar must ensure that the fees charged to its members as a result of the outage have been refunded, and reimburse any outstanding third-party fees or costs, including interest costs, imposed on members as a result of the outage.

“Credit unions must prioritize their members, yet VyStar’s due diligence fell far short of what was required for completing a successful conversion of the credit union’s mobile and online banking platforms,” NCUA Chairman Todd Harper said in a statement. “These management failures resulted in consumer harm over the course of not just weeks but months, as well as safety and soundness problems like strategic, reputational, legal and compliance risks.”