ALEXANDRIA, Va.-According to recently released NCUA data on monthly actions delegated to the regions, the adoption of underserved areas was down for the month of September but the number of potential members still ranked in the middle. Just 15 credit unions adopted 20 underserved areas last month, NCUA data shows. Both numbers are the lowest for 2002, but the number of potential members added in September-2,105,484-ranks somewhere in the middle. More than half of the applications, or 21, were deferred. The largest underserved additions occurred at Arizona Federal Credit Union in Phoenix (486,699 new potential members), Spur Federal Credit Union in El Paso, Texas (279,350), and Security Service Federal Credit Union of San Antonio, Texas (195,780). Additionally, one federal credit union converted to a state charter, while another went the other way; E.D.S. Employees Federal Credit Union in Plano, Texas and its $481 million in assets swapped out charters with City and County Employees Credit Union ($7.3 million) of Albert Lea, Minn., respectively. A new federally insured state chartered credit union, Hacienda Community Credit Union of Portland, Oregon, with more than 1.4 million potential members, gave the state charters a one-point lead for the month over the federals. Another federal credit union was lost to mergers for a gain of two for state chartered credit unions during the month of September. Of 21 mergers approved last month, nine federal credit unions and 12 state chartered credit unions survived, while 10 federal credit unions and 11 state chartered credit unions merged. The merged federal credit unions accounted for nearly $128 million in assets and the state chartered credit unions that were merged into other credit unions totaled almost $200 million in assets. [email protected]