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NAFCU President and CEO Dan Berger said NCUA's reported loss of sensitive personal and financial data from a credit union in Palm Springs, Calif., is "unacceptable" and pressed the agency to review what happened and to be open about how it will prevent a recurrence.

"NCUA is a steward of credit unions' sensitive information and must be held to the highest standard for safeguarding such data," said Berger. "These types of errors have the ability to do great harm to credit unions' reputations and their members' financial well-being. We charge NCUA with taking all steps necessary to review their processes in a transparent way to ensure this type of mistake does not happen again."

Credit Union Times reported Monday that the agency confirmed its examiner lost an external flash drive containing names, addresses, Social Security numbers and account numbers of members during an examination of Palm Springs Federal Credit Union. An NCUA spokesman is quoted saying the thumb drive contained no PINs and that there has been no indication of any unauthorized access to members' accounts or efforts to gain such access.

The loss was in October, and the credit unions has notified its members, the report said.