As the Internet Corporation for Names and Numbers (ICANN) gets ready to release new domain names, the question remains: Will credit unions really ditch .com or .org for .creditunion?
A CUNA survey found 57% of CUs said they were somewhat to very interested in signing up for .creditunion.
But CU executives interviewed for this story indicated that their interest is mostly to prevent "cybersquatting" — registering a name by an unaffiliated party for uses unrelated to the entity's business.
Eric Richard, EVP and general counsel for CUNA, said the trade group has not been soliciting pre-registrations for the new domain, but it is establishing a pre-certification process.
"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 or .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."
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 Cuba.
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."
Kevin Landel, SVP and chief information officer for $4 billion Patelco CU in Pleasanton, Calif., said he would consider adopting .creditunion "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 will "definitely" register for .creditunion, but will keep using Kinecta.org as its primary Web address for now.
Doiron acknowledged ICANN's rollout of a number of new top-level domain names will lead to many changes, and said the 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.
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.
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 added.
