Share Insurance Toolkit
This toolkit contains a variety of helpful resources regarding NCUA's Share Insurance protection. Credit union members can easily see if their credit union is federally insured, and can use the E-Calculator to determine their individual accounts' Share Insurance coverage. The items in the brochures and advertisements sections explain in easily understood terms the nature and extent of the NCUA Share Insurance program. The remaining items are directed towards credit unions, and include links to capitalization deposit statements, an operating fee calculator, EFT form, media releases, and NCUA downloadable graphics.
Is My Credit Union Federally Insured?
- To determine if your credit union is federally insured click here
Electronic Tools
Several electronic tools are provided here to help you, as an individual, estimate your share insurance coverage, or you, as a credit union, view your capitalization deposit amount, estimate your operating fee or sign up for our electronic payment system. Click on any of the following links to execute the related tool:
For Individuals:
- E-Calculator: Choose this Share Insurance Estimator tool to calculate the insurance coverage of individual accounts, joint accounts with no more than 10 owners, revocable trust account (i.e., ITF/POD and living trust accounts) with up to 3 owners and 20 beneficiaries, IRAs and business accounts. It can process account groups from a single credit union of up to 50 accounts.
For Credit Unions:
- Capitalization Deposit Statement: This application enables credit unions to view their capitalization deposit balance and transactions held with the NCUSIF. This web-access statement is updated weekly.
- Estimated Operating Fee: If you are a credit union, select this tool to calculate your estimated operating fee for the current year.
- EFT Form: This form provides credit unions with a convenient means of providing NCUA with the information needed to make electronic payments to credit unions.
Media Releases
- Media Releases: Over the years Congress has created laws and NCUA has produced regulations related to NCUA's Share Insurance Fund. Relevant media releases highlighting those laws and regulations can be found here.
Brochures, Booklets, and Slide Shows
- "How Your Accounts Are Federally Insured" (English) (Spanish): This brochure briefly talks about NCUA and Share Insurance, and discusses the basic insurance coverage provided for share accounts, share draft accounts, money market accounts, and share certificates. Additional information is provided about the insurance coverage for various account types such as retirement accounts, joint accounts, and trusts accounts. You can view, print, or download this PDF brochure.
- "Your Insured Funds" (English) (Spanish): This booklet provides a more in-depth look at NCUA's Share Insurance and includes many examples to help you understand the protection provided.
- "Share Insurance and You": This is a PowerPoint slide show that provides explanations and several real-world examples demonstrating how you can set up your accounts to maximize your Share Insurance protection.
Downloadable Labels, Brochures Directories, Signs and Posters
Related Information
The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) is the federal agency that administers the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund (NCUSIF). The NCUSIF, like the FDIC’s Deposit Insurance Fund, is a federal insurance fund backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. Government.
The NCUSIF insures member savings in federally insured credit unions, which account for approximately 98 percent of all credit unions. All federal credit unions and the vast majority of state-chartered credit unions are covered by NCUSIF insurance protection.
Credit unions that are insured by NCUSIF must prominently display the official NCUA insurance sign:
No credit union may terminate its federal insurance without first notifying its members.
Here are some important facts to remember about your share insurance provided by the NCUSIF:
Not one penny of insured savings has ever been lost by a member of a federally insured credit union.
As a member of a federally insured credit union, you do not pay directly for your share insurance protection. Your credit union places a deposit into the NCUSIF and pays an insurance assessment based on the total amount of insured shares and deposits in the credit union. Federally insured credit unions are required to deposit and maintain one percent of their insured shares and deposits in the NCUSIF.
Share accounts in federally insured credit unions are insured up to the Standard Maximum Share Insurance Amount (SMSIA), $250,000. You may obtain additional separate coverage on multiple accounts, but only if you have different ownership interests or rights in different types of accounts and you properly complete account forms and applications. For example, if you have a regular share account and an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) at the same credit union, the regular share account is insured up to $250,000 and the IRA is separately insured up to $250,000. However, if you have a regular share account, a share certificate, and a share draft account, all in your own name, you will not have additional coverage. Those accounts will be added together and insured up to $250,000 as your individual account.
Shares denominated in foreign currencies are insured as outlined in NCUA Rules and Regulations.
Coverdell Education Saving Accounts, formerly education IRAs, are insured as irrevocable trust accounts and will be added to a member’s other irrevocable trust accounts and insured up to the SMSIA. Roth IRAs will be added together with traditional IRAs and insured up to $250,000.
Additional coverage is available on revocable trust or payable on death accounts on a per beneficiary basis. A co-owner’s interest in all joint accounts in the same credit union will be added together and insured up to the SMSIA.
The federal insurance fund has several programs to help insured credit unions which may be experiencing problems. Liquidations or failures are the last resort. If a federally insured credit union does fail the NCUSIF will make any necessary payouts to the credit union’s members. These payouts are usually done within three days from the time the credit union closes its doors.