New Chartering Assistance Tool Now Online, NCUA Announces
The new system will allow organizers to evaluate how well they meet the requirements for starting a new credit union.
A new tool that will attempt to help guide groups that want to charter a new credit union through the process is up and running, the NCUA announced Thursday.
The Chartering Proof of Concept tool is an automated guide that will help potential applicants with the information they need to prepare an application.
It also will allow the agency’s Office of Credit Union Resources and Expansion to preview the information to be included in the application, agency officials said.
The new system will allow organizers to evaluate how well they meet the requirements for starting a new credit union: purpose and core values, field of membership, capital and subscribers. They will submit the application to the NCUA, which will review the answers.
The agency will review the application and groups that achieve a score of at least 80 out of 100 will be invited to submit an application.
Groups that do not score that high will be asked to provide additional information or to consider alternatives.
Agency officials told the NCUA board in May that they were developing the new tool.
At the time, NCUA board member J. Mark McWatters that that he found the chartering process to be “amazingly sluggish.”
He added, “These are credit unions. We’re not sending people to Mars here.”