Four new federally insured credit unions have been chartered so far in 2024, in line with similar growth of new charters over the last three years, the board of the federal credit union regulator was told Thursday.
During the meeting of the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) Board, it was told in a briefing that the four credit unions chartered in 2024 were three federal credit unions (FCUs) and one state-chartered, federally insured CU. Those numbers nearly match the past three years with four new CUs chartered in 2021 and 2022, and three last year.
The board also learned in the staff briefing that the average number of days it takes to approve a charter application, after receipt by the agency, increased in 2024 (so far) to 215 days, up from last year’s average of 152 days and from the 2022 average of 185 days.
Still, the 2024 average is well below the more than 1.5 years it took to charter a new credit union in 2018 (564 days), but 45% higher than the recent low of 148 days set in 2021.
The agency said it has received 14 applications for new charters this year, approved three, denied one and deferred six. Three applications remain under review, and one was withdrawn.
The three-member board also heard a staff briefing on cybersecurity issues at credit unions in fiscal year (FY) 2024. The staff said that there was a total of 1,072 “incident reports” related to cybersecurity – asserting that 742 of those were related to third parties working with credit unions. Of the remaining 330, 118 were incidents related to automated teller machines (ATMS), or 35%, 101 were categorized as “other” (30%), 95 were email compromised (29%), and 16 were ransomware (5%).
NCUA Board Briefed on Cybersecurity, New Charters, and Field of Membership