$250K NCUSIF coverage effective immediately

WASHINGTON (10/6/08)--Friday's passage of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 will require the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) to immediately increase share insurance protection to $250,000 on all types of accounts until Dec. 31, 2009.

President George W. Bush signed the economic rescue package just hours after it was passed by the House 263-171. The Senate approved the bill on Wednesday.

The NCUA said it is reviewing all share insurance coverage materials included on the Internet Share Insurance Tool Kit, such as the "Your Insured Funds" brochure and print advertisement, to make needed revisions.

Revised documents reflecting $250,000 coverage will be posted to the NCUA website as soon as possible, according to the agency.

The overall rescue bill—intended to shore up the nation's economy in light of such factors as the current mortgage crisis and wildly fluctuating activity on Wall Street—would allocate up to $700 billion to the U.S. Treasury Department to buy up mortgage-backed securities whose values have dropped or become hard to sell.

The package gives the government an ownership share in the companies that participate in the program, an element that was missing from earlier rescue drafts. This provision makes it so taxpayers could benefit from any increased value in the securities created by the government's support.

After the bill became law, CUNA President/CEO Dan Mica said, "Credit unions had no hand in creating the root cause of the problem this bill aims to fix. Without question, however, they and their members like so many others are collateral damage of the economic hardship that has resulted.

"In that sense, Congress had to act to avert any additional damage to the nation's economy and inject confidence in our financial system. Along those lines, credit unions appreciate the fact that the bill reflects our priority of raising the level of federal deposit insurance at credit unions (through National Credit Union Share Insurance (NCUSIF) coverage) to $250,000, giving credit unions parity with the same increase for banks and the FDIC.

"This action sends a vital message to credit union members and consumers that their federally-insured deposits in credit unions remain safe."