Do Members Really Pay Attention to Deposit Insurance Coverage?

ARLINGTON, Va.-Recognizing all the talk in the credit union community about private deposit insurance coverage and consumer awareness, one credit union CEO took matters into his own hands. A NAFCU member credit union CEO polled members in a teller line at the credit union about who insured their deposits and found that most thought it was the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, according to NAFCU President and CEO Fred Becker who relayed the story. Becker said an unnamed member credit union took an informal survey and discovered that about 65% of the members that came through the teller lines that day thought the FDIC insured their accounts. Only 22% responded with the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund. The Internal Revenue Service garnered the remaining 13% of the members polled, Becker added. One of NAFCU’s key arguments against private insurance has been that members are not aware of the difference between an institution being privately insured or federally insured or whether a member knows which their credit union is. NAFCU contends that a systemic failure in the private insurance system, which does not have federal government backing, could lead to a loss of faith in all credit unions.