NCUA grants charter to Maine Harvest Federal Credit Union

The National Credit Union Administration has granted a federal charter and share insurance to Maine Harvest Federal Credit Union in Unity.

The charter was granted on Aug. 14, and the institution should open this fall, the regulator said in a press release on Friday. The new institution will serve the employees and roughly 13,000 members of the Maine Farmland Trust and Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association.

“How appropriate that this credit union is located in a town named Unity,” NCUA Chairman Rodney E. Hood said in a press release. “Credit unions are organized through, and operate on, the principle of people working together to support one another. I want to thank the organizers of Maine Harvest for their hard work to bring their dream to reality and congratulate them on their charter.”

Maine Harvest will be the first credit union to exclusively provide credit to local farmers and others in the food industry. It will provide member business loans, including agricultural real estate loans and related equipment loans, in addition to offering wire transfers, cashier checks, mobile banking and more, according to the NCUA press release.

NCUA has indicated that it wants to make the chartering process easier. There have been only a handful of new credit unions opened in the last few years, including Otoe-Missouria Federal Credit Union in Red Rock, Okla.