WASHINGTON, DC (June 18, 2026) |
CUCollaborate, a data and analytics firm that helps credit unions grow, today announced a new consulting line that formalizes years of hands-on chartering work into a dedicated practice for de novo credit unions. De novo credit unions – a term meaning “from scratch” - are newly chartered entities, rather than formed through a merger or a conversion. The service guides organizing groups through the full path to a charter, from defining a field of membership to securing approval from the National Credit Union Administration.
Few new credit unions are chartered in any given year. The need has not gone away. The process is long, the documentation is demanding, and most groups underestimate what regulators require before they will approve a new charter. CUCollaborate has spent the past three years doing this work directly, building the kind of hands-on chartering expertise few firms can match.
Over that period, CUCollaborate has been involved in the chartering of three credit unions and has worked with nearly a dozen organizing groups. The new line packages that experience into structured engagements spanning each deliverable across the three phases of chartering a credit union: proving the concept, building and submitting the application, and securing final approval.
The service combines proprietary data tools with hands-on chartering expertise.
CUCollaborate helps organizing groups define a defensible field of membership, quantify the underserved market a new credit union would serve, and build the business plan and pro forma financials the charter application requires. It also positions new credit unions to capture a Low-Income Designation and CDFI Certification from the start, rather than years after opening. And because a charter is only the beginning, the same tools and expertise that win approval go on to drive field of membership expansion, member acquisition, and branch strategy as the new credit union grows.
"For decades, more credit unions have closed than opened," said Sam Brownell, CEO of CUCollaborate. "We want to help reverse that. Chartering a new credit union is one of the most direct ways to bring financial services to people the system has left behind. This consulting line puts our data and our experience behind the groups doing that work."
The chartering consulting line is available now and open to any group ready to build a credit union, from community organizers, credit unions looking to leverage a new charter for purposes of business lending and sponsors to fintechs exploring a new charter. Learn more at cucollaborate.com.