NCUA’s Hood Encourages Greater Financial Inclusion for Service Members, Veterans

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Nov. 10, 2020) – On the eve of Veterans Day, National Credit Union Administration Chairman Rodney E. Hood encouraged federally insured credit unions to help our nation’s military, veterans, and their families gain greater access to affordable credit and financial services.

“I want to express my deep gratitude and sincere appreciation to our nation’s veterans for their courageous and selfless service to our country,” Chairman Hood said. “Each of them have made extraordinary sacrifices in the name of freedom, liberty, and peace. That is why it’s so important the NCUA and the credit union system work together to ensure greater financial inclusion for our nation’s service members, veterans, and their families.”

Expanding the availability of safe and affordable credit to meet the needs of diverse and underserved communities is a pillar of the NCUA’s financial inclusion initiative, ACCESS: Advancing Communities through Credit, Education, Stability, and Support. To learn more about the ACCESS initiative, visit www.ncua.gov/access.

In May, the agency announced it would include active duty military members with Army/Air Post Office or Fleet Post Office mailing addresses in its analysis when determining if a credit union qualifies for low-income designation. Under this new methodology, the majority of active duty military members count as low-income.

“We have taken an important first step by changing our methodology for how military members are considered in the low-income designation,” Hood said. “I encourage all credit unions with military members to consider this designation, which can provide eligible credit unions with greater opportunities to build more secure financial futures for our service members, veterans, and their families.”

There are several benefits for credit unions that carry a low-income designation, including an exemption from the statutory cap on member business lending, eligibility for grants and loans from the Community Development Revolving Loan Fund, the ability to accept deposits from non-members, and the authorization to obtain supplemental capital.

Additional information about the updated methodology and the options credit unions have to incorporate their military members into the low-income designation process are available in a Letter to Credit Unions issued in May.

The NCUA will work with credit unions on an individual basis to determine what types of additional information would be most helpful in determining whether members qualify as low income. The agency will continue to analyze available data periodically to ensure the low-income designation properly accounts for all military members.

Credit unions should contact the NCUA’s Office of Credit Union Resources and Expansion at DCAMail@ncua.gov or 703.518.1150 for additional information about the low-income designation.

The NCUA will also be closed in observance of the Veterans Day holiday on Nov. 11.