The shares in your credit union are insured by the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund (NCUSIF), an arm of NCUA. Established by Congress in 1970 to insure member share accounts at federally insured credit unions, the NCUSIF is managed by NCUA under the direction of the three-person NCUA Board. Your share insurance is similar to the deposit insurance protection offered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Share accounts in federally insured credit unions are insured to at least $250,000. Generally, if a credit union member has more than one account in the same credit union, those accounts are added together and insured to at least $250,000.
As a member of an insured credit union, you do not pay directly for your share insurance protection. Your credit union pays into the NCUSIF a deposit and an insurance assessment based on the total amount of insured shares and deposits in the credit union. There are exceptions. You may obtain additional insurance coverage on multiple accounts, if you have different ownership interests or rights in different types of accounts and you properly complete account forms and applications. For example, a regular share account is insured to at least $250,000 and an individual IRA account at the same credit union is insured to at least $250,000. However, if you have a regular share account, share certificate account and share draft account, all in your own name, you will not have additional coverage. Those accounts will be added together and insured to at least $250,000 as your individual account. For more information on NCUA Share Insurance, please contact us or visit the NCUA website.