Frequently Asked Questions for New State-Charter Applicants and Federal Share Insurance

Along with the application provided to the SSA, the applicant will submit form NCUA 9600. This form can be found online on the Credit Union Resources and Expansion page, under Starting a New Credit Union.

If the application to the SSA does not include the following, it can be sent separately to NCUA for the insurance review:

• Evidence of Member Support—This is typically obtained by surveying a statistically valid random sample of the potential membership), supported by a sample membership survey form and a summary of the survey analysis and results.
• Market conditions analysis (geographic, demographic, employment, income, housing, and other economic data).
• Business Plan Documentation, including the following:
  • Mission statement
  • Products and services
  • Goals for shares, loans, and number of members
  • Organizational/Management Plan:
    • Officials (board, supervisory committee, and credit committee)
    • Senior management and credit union staff
    • Qualifications and Planned Training
  • Continuity plan for directors, committee members, senior management
  • Description of physical location
  • Record Keeping and Data Processing Systems
  • Surety Bond Coverage
  • Source(s) and amount of donated capital and other support
  • Plans for Operating Independently
  • Marketing Plan
  • Pro Forma Financial Statements
• Bylaws
• Policies for:
  • Major operational areas (such as lending, investment, cash, BSA/OFAC, Truth-in-Savings, director fiduciary duties, reimbursement, ALM, liquidity, vendor management, E-commerce, security, disaster recovery and business continuity/resumption, privacy, identity theft red flags, credit report discrepancies, records disposal)
  • Other advanced services as applicable

The charter application should be provided to the NCUA at the same time the applicant submits it to the SSA. The NCUA will review the application and communicate with the applicant and SSA to obtain any additional information, when necessary, prior to making a determination on whether to approve the insurance application.

The NCUA will coordinate the background and credit check process with the SSA. Generally, if the SSA conducts a background and credit check and shares the results with the NCUA, the NCUA will not conduct a separate check. If the SSA does not do this, the NCUA will need to.

The NCUA strives to complete insurance applications within the same timeframe the SSA establishes to complete the chartering application review, but no later than 180 days after receipt of a substantially complete insurance application package. A substantially complete application will include a sufficient level of detail that allows the NCUA to analyze the level of risk to the share insurance fund.

The Guide does not specifically apply to a proposed new state-chartered credit union. However, Phase 2 of the Guide contains elements that the NCUA would generally take into consideration when making the decision to insure shares of a federally insured state-chartered credit union (FISCU). The primary contact for the FISCU applicant is the State Supervisory Authority (SSA), not the NCUA.

The information in Phase 2 of the Guide is what the NCUA would expect an applicant to include in the charter application provided to the SSA. We recommend the applicant survey their potential members; however, if a survey is not conducted, we would expect to see well-explained rationale and support for the assumptions in the business plan and pro forma financial statement projections. The NCUA will evaluate the business plan to determine potential risk to the share insurance fund.

Please contact the NCUA Office of Credit Union Resources and Expansion, Division of Consumer Access at dcamail@ncua.gov.