ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Though NCUA has only approved eight TIP-trade, industry, or profession-charters since their inception last year, the pace appears to be increasing. NCUA's regions approved four TIPs last year and the same so far in 2004. As of the end of June, according to NCUA's Insurance Report of Activity for June, eight TIP applications were in deferred status, which typically means the agency is just seeking additional information from the credit union. But other NCUA data show the number of applicants is even higher than that. A response from NCUA to a Freedom of Information Act request revealed that 15 credit unions actually have TIP applications in process as of June 30, 2004 (See chart). Single-sponsor credit unions that have gone this route say it was a good fit for them to be able to maintain a single-sponsor charter while diversifying their fields of membership. Community charter conversions and underserved area adoptions are continuing at a good clip. Though just eight credit unions converted to community charters in June, over five million potential members were added, the most in a month yet this year. At the June NCUA Board meeting, the board approved $507 million US Federal Credit Union in Burnsville, Minn. for a community charter with a population of 2,642,056. The credit union currently has 559,800 members. Jefferson County Federal Credit Union (Ky.) was also approved for a large community charter conversion with a potential membership of more than one million. Jefferson County holds $52 million in assets. The region was able to approve the conversion even though the population was more than one million since the board had approved Park Federal Credit Union for the same field of membership in December of last year. The regional director had also approved L&N Federal Credit Union to serve the same area in March. So far this year, NCUA has approved 36 community charters for more than 16 million potential members. Credit unions continued to add underserved areas to their FOMs in June for a total of 97 areas this year and a population of 11,875,855. In June seven credit unions were approved to serve nine underserved areas with an aggregate population of nearly 2.7 million. Some of the largest underserved areas added were Shell Employees Houston Texas Federal Credit Union ($293 million), which added nearly two million potential members; The Atlantic Federal Credit Union ($227 million) located in Kenilworth, N.J., which added 273,546 potential members; and Baton Rouge's Campus Federal Credit Union, which added 227,920 potential members to its FOM. Though not record-setting, credit union mergers continued to rage on with 32 approved during the month of June. Thirteen involved credit unions under $1 million in assets, while another 13 were of credit unions under $10 million. Six involved credit unions over $10 million in assets. A total of 154 credit unions merged during the first half of 2004. Two credit unions – $27 million OhioHealth Credit Union and $185 million Granite Credit Union (Salt Lake City) – were approved for conversions to federal charters in June. Additionally, Silver State Schools Credit Union in Las Vegas left the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund for American Share Insurance (See related story on page 3). – [email protected]