Federal Manager's Daily Report

The National Credit Union Administration has decided to present a more traditional look of a federal agency to the public through revising its logo, in part to stress that it really is a federal agency.

The NCUA, an independent agency, supervises federal credit unions and insures the deposits of their account holders as well as the accounts of most state-chartered credit unions. However, the seal of the agency features just an upside down v shape above a rectangle on a field of blue, with the agency’s name in a white field surrounding it—and none of the traditional symbols commonly found on agency logos that evoke the national government.

According to the 1971 order creating that logo, the v shape is designed to evoke a roof and the rectangular shape a door, and the background field is to evoke the advantages of credit union membership, although there is no hint as to what they may be.

The new logo, in contrast, features the eagle and shield from the Great Seal of the United States that “readily and clearly conveys confidence and security, and identifies the NCUA as an integral part of the federal government,” the agency said in announcing the change, which was set by a new executive order.

The eagle holds an oak branch in one talon that “symbolizes the NCUA’s strength, honor, and longevity in carrying out its mission of promoting confidence in the national system of cooperative credit,” according to the new order. In the other it holds an olive branch that “symbolizes the peace and prosperity facilitated by the economic growth and access to affordable financial services that the nation’s credit unions have long provided to millions of Americans.”