WASHINGTON—Small federal credit unions can improve their bottom lines by tapping into two often overlooked sources of funds, a CEO who has taken advantage of them told attendees a CUNA Governmental Affairs Conference forum here.
Debie Keesee, head of $10.4 million-asset Spokane Media Federal Credit Union, pointed to her institution's own success at becoming eligible for the grants, low-interest loans and other benefits that go with receiving a low-Income designation by the NCUA even though she was first told SMFCU didn't meet the member threshold.
Keesee said members who only had post office boxes listed as their mailing addresses weren't counted by NCUA. So she contacted them, got street addresses and Spokane Media was awarded the designation.
In December, NCUA said the number of credit unions classified as "low income" continued to rise, with more than 2,000 institutions across the nation now certified as low-income.
To find out how close a federal CU is to low-income status, an institution can email NCUA's Office of Consumer Protection at dcamail@ncua.gov or call 703-518-1150.
To learn other ways than converting members' post office box listings to street addresses to get the designation, she advised contacting the Office of Consumer Protection and NCUA's Office of Small Credit Initiatives (oscuimail@ncua.gov) or by calling 703-518-1160.
Federal credit unions can also miss out by failing to apply for the small employer health insurance credit, according to Keesee.
"It takes an hour's worth of time to fill out the necessary part of an IRS Form 990T. I got a $1,100 check from the IRS," said Keesee, whose CU is based in Spokane, Wash.
Form 990T can be found by going to http://tinyurl.com/2frw8u. For the instructions on how to get the tax credit click on http://tinyurl.com/2fkmz5
Federal credit unions that haven't applied for the health savings in the past can get reimbursed back to 2010.
