The Credit Union National Association this week passed off its ownership of the .creditunion domain to DotCooperation, which owns the global .coop domain.
CUNA launched .creditunion in 2015 and the domain was intended to help institutions identify themselves as credit unions on the web. However, usage of the domain never took off widely, and for many institutions that used it the domain merely redirected users to the credit union’s primary domain, in most cases a .com or .org.
Representatives for the trade group could not immediately clarify whether or not the domain was sold or merely given over to DotCoop, and other terms of the deal remain unknown.
A press release noted that CUNA will maintain an advisory role after the transfer to DotCoop, which is jointly owned by the National Cooperative Business Association and the International Cooperative Alliance.
“This important ownership change retains and reflects the historic credit union cooperative mission,” CUNA President and CEO Jim Nussle said in the release. “We believe that DotCoop is well suited to maintain the .creditunion namespace and oversee its development within the cooperative network.”
Violetta Nafpaktiti, president of DotCoop, said the company will continue to “foster and develop the .creditunion top-level domain alongside .coop.”
