Cybersecurity threats continue to rise in both volume and sophistication and for credit unions, the stakes are especially high. In response, regulatory oversight has intensified as the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) has named cybersecurity its top supervisory priority for 2025. Credit unions—particularly those with limited internal IT capacity—must navigate expanding expectations around cyber risk management, operational resilience, and governance.
Working with a knowledgeable and experienced Managed Services Provider (MSP) who specializes in the unique operational demands of credit unions can make all the difference in meeting today's cybersecurity and compliance expectations. A mature MSP serves as both a technology enabler and a strategic compliance partner, guiding and supporting credit unions through third-party audits and NCUA examinations to ensure alignment, operational readiness, and long-term cyber resilience. The most effective partners help you remain secure, productive, AND compliant.
Credit union leaders know the weight a CAMELS rating carries—how it shapes examiner scrutiny, influences institutional strategy, and ripples into leadership evaluations. While external partners don't see the final score, a capable MSP understands the real-world implications of CAMELS and where it can meaningfully support strong outcomes.
Whether it’s supporting capital adequacy with resilient infrastructure, aiding management through virtual CIO and CISO services, or enhancing liquidity planning with secure and scalable IT operations, the right MSP plays a critical role in multiple areas:
Most critically, they can directly impact areas like operational management, cybersecurity controls, and policy adherence—key categories where audit findings often emerge. A partner who understands how these technical components map back to regulatory expectations doesn't just respond to findings—they help prevent them.
When partnering with an MSP that works within heavily regulated industries, credit unions benefit from support throughout the full lifecycle of audits and exams. Prior to the examination, most institutions must complete extensive questionnaires, often covering technical infrastructure, security policies, and operational protocols. An experienced MSP can take the lead in compiling and validating this information, ensuring it accurately reflects the credit union's posture while highlighting areas of strength.
During the audit or examination, the MSP often participates in interviews alongside credit union leadership. These mid-process conversations allow auditors or examiners to dive deeper into specific areas of concern, and having a technical expert present provides clarity and confidence and expedites issue resolution. The MSP should also support exit interviews, ensuring any findings are fully understood.
After the audit or exam, results often include a mix of observations, recommendations, and required remediation. The best MSPs don't just deliver a list of technical fixes. They assess the findings through a strategic lens—evaluating which issues are most critical, which might have business implications, and how to address them in a way that supports both compliance and continuity. They build comprehensive remediation plans, complete with timelines, resource requirements, and project management oversight, so credit unions can confidently demonstrate progress in follow-up cycles.
The NCUA has spotlighted four supervisory priorities: cybersecurity, credit risk, balance sheet management, and consumer financial protection. Of these, cybersecurity remains the most pressing. A specialized MSP understands this emphasis and helps credit unions embed cybersecurity best practices into daily operations.
Support may include board-level guidance and reporting, helping leadership teams meet their oversight obligations. MSPs can also provide strategic technical leadership services and advisory resources to strengthen governance and help translate technical needs into strategic risk management plans. Equally important is the ability to deliver tools and services like managed detection and response, vulnerability and patch management, secure backups with verified restore capabilities, and user security awareness training—all of which align directly with the NCUA's expectations.
With the FFIEC Cybersecurity Assessment Tool (CAT) being sunset, many credit unions are reevaluating how they assess and align their cybersecurity maturity. Increasingly, the NCUA and other regulatory bodies are pointing to the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) 2.0 as the standard for cybersecurity governance—and with good reason. It's comprehensive, adaptable, and built to keep pace with today's rapidly evolving threat landscape.
But while NIST CSF is a powerful tool, implementing it effectively is no small task. Credit unions often struggle to translate their high-level guidance into actionable steps across their infrastructure, operations, and policies.
This is where a disciplined, holistic approach—often delivered in partnership with a specialized MSP—becomes priceless. A compliance-aware MSP with deep NIST expertise will guide credit unions through an operational alignment process that evaluates their posture across NIST CSF's core functions: Govern, Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover. This isn't a one-time checklist, but rather a continuous improvement discipline designed to support strategic cybersecurity governance. The real benefit for credit unions lies in the ability to:
As highlighted in recent NCUA guidance, the agency is aligning its cybersecurity oversight with the NIST Cybersecurity Framework and encouraging credit union boards to strengthen oversight of third-party vendors as part of their broader risk management responsibilities. MSPs that can speak the language of NIST, support remediation with real action, and help credit unions stay ahead of examiner expectations provide far more than technical fixes—they become essential compliance partners.
A strategic and compliance-ready MSP does more than manage technology—it serves as an extension of your team, offering insight, coordination, and confidence. For resource-constrained credit unions, especially those without forward-thinking technical leadership, this partnership offers critical value. The mature MSP helps uncover and address operational blind spots, maintain alignment with evolving regulatory change, and support board-level accountability without adding strain to internal teams.
For credit unions preparing for their next exam seeking to improve their cybersecurity posture, or navigating the shifting regulatory landscape, a specialized MSP can make the difference between reactive compliance and strategic readiness.