Finest FCU President/CEO Keith Stone said plans to launch the credit union initially began in 2007 but stopped in 2008 after funding dried up during the financial crisis. The project resumed in 2013 and took approximately two years to complete. The cooperative will open its doors with approximately $4 million in capital and insured deposits from other credit unions.

Stone said the chartering process is not simple but it makes sense.

"I think the NCUA does their best to do their due diligence to make sure the organizers know what's in store for them, that they understand their responsibilities of a financial institution and at times. It seems tedious, but only because of the detailed information that we had to provide in addition to receiving the low income designation," he said.

Stone said the process was well worth it considering all the work involved. In the end, it turned out to be a great learning experience, he added.

However, he advised others interested in forming a credit union to develop a clear and concise business plan.

"Your pro forma documentation and projections need to match your business plan. When you have an idea of your field of membership, what you want your products to be and how you see yourself growing, your core systems, your banking affiliates and a good business plan supported by proper projections. It makes the process a lot easier," he said.

"Have a clear picture of where you want to be and what you want to do as far as building the institution, supporting it and going forward into the future."

Stone said the business plan for Finest FCU had to be modified several times along the way.

The NCUA assigned specific staff to the credit union launch project, which helped move the process along, he added.

"The NCUA wants to make sure our numbers supported our business plan. It had to be changed several times and that was a good thing – making us remodel the business plan according to their expert recommendations," he said. "The NCUA was great to work with as far as correspondence. We were in very good communication with the NCUA."

Stone was asked if the NCUA could simplify the chartering process in any way.

"They streamlined the process recently to a certain extent. It's all according to the organizers and their expertise. The people you have from the start will make all the difference in the world," he said.

Stone was not able to estimate the total costs of completing the charter process.

"You can't put a dollar price on it because there is no salary in the beginning. They believed in the vision of the Finest Federal Credit Union. Ultimately, it's about helping the members; the finest entities in New York City – the law enforcement community. It's really hard to put a dollar amount on the efforts of the organizers," he said.

The Finest FCU is filling a void, he said, because there are no financial institutions in New York City that represent the needs of the New York City Police Department and its affiliates.

"Our field of membership is the police entities that work in New York City and their relatives as well as retirees," Stone said. "We are going to be offering specific products to help these members, including equipment loans for the equipment their offices need at a reasonable interest rate."

The Finest FCU is also planning to offer a program that would pay off loans for members who are killed in the line of duty.

"Members of the New York City Police Department put their lives on the line for the public and we felt that these police officers do not have a specific credit union representing them and we wanted to give something back to New York's finest," Stone said.

James Shea, the credit union's board chairman and a retired NYPD chief, said loans for small businesses that may be part of an officer's retirement planning and special line-of-duty insurance to pay off credit union loan obligations are the kinds of tailored products and services that the Finest FCU's members want and deserve.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio praised the Finest FCU for serving police officers that take unique risks due to the nature of their job.

"It is common for peace officer organizations to establish specialized credit unions that provide savings, lending and insurance products that meet their special needs," de Blasio said. "I am pleased to learn that a specialized credit union, the Finest Federal Credit Union, is being established for that purpose."

The data services CUSO CU*Answers in Grand Rapids, Mich., said it signed Finest FCU on to a CU*BASE agreement. The new credit union will take part in the firm's Starting a Credit Union with CU*Answers program, which includes free CU*BASE data processing services for two years, according to Stone.

"While there have been hundreds of decisions made in our start-up process, choosing the right data processor was among the most important. It was pretty much a slam-dunk," Stone said. "CU*Answers shares a similar cooperative vision, unbelievable price model, and a deep level of member services desired. The value-add of this program will be enormous for our start-up initiative, and will allow us to hit the ground running from day one."

Tom Buuck, president/CEO of Lutheran Federal Credit Union in St. Louis, said the organizers were satisfied with the input from the NCUA during the roughly two-year chartering process that began in the summer of 2012. The agency ultimately approved the charter in December 2014.

There are at least five denominations of Lutherans within the country and the credit union specifically serves the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, according to Buuck.

"Our members are tired of the inconsistency of service, products, and pricing. We will offer them a consistent and reliable customer experience with depth of offering," he said.

It took about six to nine months for the Lutheran FCU's field of membership to be approved and the amount of time to prepare the charter application, Buuck said. Once the application was submitted to the agency, it took another 15 to 18 months for approval.

"Challenges were primarily internal. We wanted and needed to make sure we had a viable business plan, that our members were engaged in the process and that our operations will be receptive to our members," Buuck said. "So, the challenges were asking the right questions to the right people and getting responses from the right people."

When asked if he had advice for organizers of new credit unions, Buuck said, "get your capital lined up. Then after that, expect lots of brain damage."

The $311,046 First Unity Federal Credit Union in McComb, Miss., worked on the chartering process for four years before it was approved in June 2014, according to Samuel Hall, president/CEO. Proving to the NCUA that there was a need for the credit union and that the community would support the institution was the greatest challenge, he recalled.

"The process to prove this was very difficult. The projections created a challenge because we had to make some aggressive assumptions, which created doubt in the minds of the approving officials," Hall said. "I realized after the fact that additional capital would have solved most of the problems."

Hall suggested the NCUA explain each item in the charter application guide with more detail to simplify the chartering process. Overall, he said he gained a great deal of knowledge along the way.

"The steps I had to go through were very important because it required detailed analysis, which demanded that I do the necessary due diligence," Hall said. "I would not change that because all the knowledge I gained during this process, I needed every bit of it."

Hall's advice for others is to determine the amount of capital needed up front and collect. He also suggested targeting the financially neglected.

"Serve the underbanked community because they are being pushed to finance companies and check cashing businesses," he said.