National Credit Union Administration

The NCUA is the federal regulator for credit unions — the not-for-profit, member-owned financial cooperatives that serve 130 million Americans. NCUA charters federal credit unions, insures deposits at federally insured credit unions up to $250,000 through the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund (NCUSIF), and supervises credit unions for safety, soundness, and compliance with consumer protection laws.

Credit unions are frequently presented as the safe, member-owned alternative to banks. This is often true — credit unions generally have lower complaint rates than their bank peers. But it is not universally true. ComplaintRate includes NCUA enforcement data to give a complete picture of credit unions in the database, distinguishing between credit unions with genuinely clean records and those with formal NCUA supervisory actions. Navy Federal Credit Union's 26.47% mortgage denial rate — 1 in 4 applications rejected from US military members — illustrates that credit union status does not guarantee fair outcomes.

If you bank with a credit union, the NCUA is your primary federal regulator — not the OCC or Federal Reserve. An NCUA enforcement action on ComplaintRate indicates the credit union's own regulator found violations serious enough to require formal corrective action. You can file a complaint about a federally chartered credit union at mycreditunion.gov/file-a-complaint. State-chartered credit unions are regulated by state agencies alongside NCUA for federally insured institutions.

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