WASHINGTON, D.C. CUNA expects approval of the Internet domain name .creditunion (dot credit union) by the worldwide Internet Corporation for Names and Numbers, known as ICANN, anytime now.
"As far as we know, ICANN is satisfied with our application and we are expecting approval any day now," said CUNA General Counsel Eric Richard. "There are no outstanding issues at this point."
CUNA said that claiming the .creditunion name will provide a good marketing tool for credit unions and CU-related organizations, as well as prevent non-credit union entities from using it.
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ICANN, which announced plans to broaden the number of approved top-level domain names beyond the handful of .com, .org, .gov, .edu, and.coop in 2011, is expected to issue final approval on thousands of new domain names shortly.
As part of the process, well-known U.S. companies have sought domain names to associate with their brands, like .Chevy or .AIG, and other financial services categories like .bank and .insure are in the process of being created.
CUNA has created a mechanism for credit unions to register their interest. CUs can e-mail
An estimated 500 new domain name endings are expected to be released in the next 12 to 18 months, according to Joe Alagna, vice president of Channel Development for 101Domain.com.
"Everyone is so used to .com, but that is changing," said Alagna. "ICANN started this process five years ago and now they will be releasing 15 to 20 new endings every week for the next year."
Richard said CUNA spearheaded the initiative as an applicant with a "defensive purpose” to protect the industry from possible fraudulent activity. "We [CUNA] expect to be a reliable gatekeeper on who can use [.creditunion]," he said.
New International CU Oversight Council
Though still in the planning stages, Richard said an advisory committee comprised of approximately six to eight credit union leaders from around the world will be in place later this year. Collectively, the council will be charged with regulating the application process and to ensure that safe guards are in place.
Alagna said that CUNA appears to be limiting the registration of .creditunion only to credit union-related businesses in the same fashion as .edu limits registrations only to accredited schools. "The intent is to make .creditunion a safer, more trusted ending than say .com .or .org for credit union members," he noted.
CUNA's application was issued a priority number of 476 out of roughly 2,500 applicants, according to Alagna. "They did not have any contention or competitors so I would estimate that they'll get released and go into sunrise for trademark holders only, which is the real first stage of release some time in the second or third quarter of 2014."
In advance of the release, 101Domain.com, like other providers, will begin taking paid pre-registration orders. Alagna said the company is also taking free pre-registrations, which is tantamount to "a simple expression of interest."
Though not surprising, due to ICANN's pending announcement, "relative" pre-registration numbers for .creditunion so far has been low.
"Out of approximately 500 new endings that we are taking pre-registrations for, 164 were over 2% of the total, 152 were between 1% and 2% of the total pre-registrations, and the rest were below 1% of total pre-registrations. .creditunion was less than 1% as compared to the others,” said Alagna.
