NAFCU Changes Name to Reflect State CU Membership

The National Association of Federal Credit Unions is changing its name to reflect the fact federally insured state charters can join.

Effective Jan. 1, the organization is set to rebrand as the National Association of Federally Insured Credit Unions, reflective of the trade association's recent move to allow full voting rights and seats on the board for representatives from both federal and state-chartered credit unions.

"While our name change reflects our mission to serve all federally insured credit unions, our focus remains the same," NAFCU Board Chair Richard Harris said in a statement. "We remain committed to providing the best in advocacy, education and compliance assistance at the federal level."

NAFCU's logo and acronym will not change, according to the release, which noted strong brand recognition for both.

The tweak to NAFCU's name comes as an increasing number of credit unions are converting from federal to state charters, opting for private share insurance or both. The National Credit Union Administration's recent modifications to its Field of Membership rule are intended to level the playing field between the two charters, though recent NCUA data shows state charters growing faster than their federal counterparts when measured by certain metrics.

Though NAFCU has long had a number of state-chartered credit unions in its ranks, up until a couple of years ago, those were credit unions that had started out as federal charters and then converted to state charters but wanted to maintain their memberships with NAFCU.