As the wheels move forward in the approval of new online domain names for financial institutions, the question remains: Will credit unions really ditch .com or .org for .creditunion?
The Internet Corporation for Names and Numbers (ICANN)
But credit unions interviewed for this story indicated that their interest is mostly to prevent "cybersquatting" — the practice of registering a name by an unaffiliated party for uses unrelated to the entity's business.
Eric Richard, executive vice president and general counsel for CUNA, told Credit Union Journal the trade group has not been soliciting pre-registrations for the new domain name, but it is establishing a pre-certification process.
"Only legally chartered credit unions are allowed to use .creditunion, plus possibly totally allied organizations that exist inside a credit union," he said. "We do not know if something approaching [57% of credit unions] will sign up, but we want to limit it to legitimate credit unions rather than people who might create negativity for the credit union movement."
CUNA has set up an information e-mail address:
Part of the tepid interest in .creditunion appears to stem from the fact other options are available. A number of CUs use .org name, if not .com, and they also have the choice to register .coop. Richard said when .coop came out there were only a few domain names available, and it stirred little interest because it was "too generic."
"The Internet is about to change, and this is something that we hope will be closely identified with credit unions," he said. "Banks are going to make a big deal out of .bank."
For those who noticed .creditunion is significantly longer than .bank and are wondering why a shorter option was not used, .cu has long since been assigned to the nation of Cuba.
Root Connections
CUNA expects it will take several months until the first .creditunion names are ready for use.
Robin Cook, CUNA's assistant general counsel for special projects, said after ICANN gives approval, the trade group will enter into a contract with a company that ensures the credit union domain is connected with the root of the Internet.
"A lot depends on things we cannot control, specifically ICANN," Cook said. "They are looking at all the financial institution top level domains together, because consumers need to be able to trust. ICANN wants to know there is appropriate verification so they really are credit unions, banks and insurance companies using those names."
Kevin Landel, SVP and chief information officer for $4 billion Patelco CU in Pleasanton, Calif., spoke for many credit unions when we said Patelco would consider adopting the .creditunion domain "for transparency and security reasons, but that it would be in addition to our current .org domain, not a replacement for it."
Shannon Doiron, VP of marketing for $3.2 billion Kinecta FCU, Manhattan Beach, Calif., said it "definitely" will register the .creditunion name, but will continue to use Kinecta.org as its primary Web address for the time being.
"From a branding perspective we want to register the new domain, but we probably will stick with .org for a while," Doiron said. "We would point the .creditunion address to the .org address."
Doiron acknowledged ICANN's rollout of a number of new top-level domain names will lead to many changes, and said the entire credit union industry will have to keep an eye on the fact there will be hyperlocal domain names, including city names.
"It is not an inexpensive proposition, but we do buy Kinecta.anything," he said.
Kinecta currently is dealing with the fact Microsoft recently launched a device called Kinect, which allows people to play video games without a joystick or controller. Doiron said in some Spanish-speaking countries is being referred to as "Kinecta."
More Interest In .LasVegas
Greg Barnes, SVP of marketing for $692 million-asset One Nevada Credit Union in Las Vegas, said his CU is "not too terribly interested" in owning OneNevada.creditunion.
"We probably would purchase the name and use it to prevent someone from cybersquatting, but we would not promote it," Barnes said. "The .org name brings more value for a nonprofit. More interesting possibly is the .lasvegas domain name that is supposed to be out soon. From a local marketing angle that brings more branding value."
Andy Hunter, president and CEO of $638 million Silver State Schools Credit Union, also in Las Vegas, said his CU would probably reserve the new domain name as an aid to members seeking SSSCU online, and to secure ownership.
In the shorter term, however, Silver State Schools will continue to use .com as its primary domain name. "We do applaud CUNA for making this designation available to the industry," Hunter said.
