Paul Atkins, who served on a TARP oversight board with NCUA board member J. Mark McWatters, is heading President-elect Trump’s transition team on independent financial agencies.
Since Trump’s election, McWatters has been mentioned as a probable NCUA chairman since the president has the power to select his own chair and the current head of the NCUA board, Rick Metsger, is a Democrat.
McWatters’ association with Atkins lends credence to that speculation, according to Dennis Dollar, principal of Dollar Associates, LLC in Birmingham, Ala., and former chairman of the NCUA board.
Trump has formed teams handling various issues, according to several news reports, which identified Atkins as heading the agency team.
Atkins (pictured at left) is CEO of consulting group Patomak Global Partners, a former member of the SEC and a critic of the Dodd-Frank Act, which Trump said he wants to eliminate.
Atkins and McWatters served as members of the congressional oversight board on TARP. Together, they co-wrote sections of reports issued by the commission and an op-ed column in the Wall Street Journal.
Incoming presidents traditionally have selected chairmen of their own party to head the NCUA board, Dollar said.
Dollar, a Republican, said he was named acting chair, then permanent chair, of the NCUA board when George W. Bush took over from President Clinton.
“With Atkins being in charge of transition for independent federal agencies like the NCUA and his longstanding relationship with McWatters, this will likely make what has been tradition to become an almost certainty,” he said.
McWatters could not be reached for comment Friday.
