NCUA TIPs Slow To Catch On

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - (05/24/05) -- So far, NCUA's TIPs--the trade,industry and profession-wide charters introduced by NCUA two yearsago--have been a hard sell among credit union with just a dozen ofthe new charter types approved since their adoption. During thattime NCUA has approved TIPs the healthcare industry, airtransportation, education, government workers and local lawenforcement, with the biggest TIP granted Orange County Teacher'sCU, the giant Santa Ana, Calif., credit union to serve educationworkers in surrounding counties. NCUA is currently reviewing asmany as 12 more applications for TIPs charters, according toinformation obtained by The Credit Union Journal under the Freedomof Information Act. Those TIPs would allow the applicant creditunions to serve the automotive aftermarket industry (CAWA FCU);protective services (Rocky Mountain Law Enforcement FCU);multi-media industry (Multi-Media FCU); federal government workers(IR FCU); and government employees (Hawaii State FCU), amongothers.