Share Insurance

The NCUA and NCUSIF

The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) is the United States independent federal agency that supervises and charters federal credit unions. NCUA also insures savings in federal and most state-chartered credit unions across the country through the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund (NCUSIF), a federal fund backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government.

This agency is the credit union’s equivalent of the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation), which serves the same function for banks. The NCUA supervises the activities of credit unions and conducts periodic examinations to insure that the credit union is following generally accepted accounting procedures and that they are operating in compliance with all regulations.

The National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund (NCUSIF) is administered by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) for the purpose of providing deposit insurance to protect deposits of credit union members at insured institutions in the United States. It was created in 1970 shortly after the creation of the NCUA as an independent regulator of credit unions. The NCUSIF is funded completely by participating credit unions, and no taxpayer dollars have ever been used to bail out a credit union. The NCUSIF is backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government.

For additional information and to access the NCUSIF Share Insurance Estimator and FAQs, please visit Share Insurance | MyCreditUnion.gov.

What is Excess Share Insurance?

Excess share insurance provides coverage for credit union members’ accounts when their balances exceed the maximum level of coverage provided by the NCUA fund. The basic federal share insurance account coverage provided by the NCUA is up to $250,000, but accounts may be structured in different ways, such as joint accounts, payable-on-death accounts, or IRA accounts, to achieve federal coverage of more than $250,000. Members exceeding the maximum level of insurance coverage provided by the NCUA may then be insured up to an additional $750,000 with excess share insurance. This provides credit union members with coverage up to $1,000,000 for the sum of all individual savings type accounts as well as $1,000,000 for an individual retirement account.

At Desco, excess share insurance is provided by Excess Share Insurance (ESI), a wholly owned subsidiary of American Share Insurance, a credit union-owned private deposit insurer founded in 1974 by credit unions, for credit unions.  As a property and casualty insurer, ESI is subject to licensing and regulation by your state’s insurance department.  Furthermore, the company’s financial statements are audited annually by an independent CPA firm and are available upon request through the credit union.

Our partnership with ESI is another service of your credit union designed to provide the utmost security for your accounts.