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ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Dec. 10, 2020) – The National Credit Union Administration expanded educational opportunities on its Learning Management Service (opens new window) in 2020, giving credit unions more resources to help them grow and better serve their members.

“I encourage all credit union leadership and staff to look into the opportunities our Learning Management Service provides,” NCUA Chairman Rodney E. Hood said. “LMS resources cover important subjects from basic training to advice on expanding services, all geared towards helping credit unions improve their efforts to provide affordable financial services.”

In 2020, the NCUA added courses in five areas:

• Basics of lending,
• Understanding share insurance,
• Capital considerations for new credit unions,
• Understanding financial statements, and
• Serving the underserved.

Courses planned for 2021 include “What Every Board Member Needs to Know” and Bank Secrecy Act compliance.

The LMS also has webinars discussing a variety of topics from governance to best practices to regulatory compliance. In 2020, NCUA added webinars covering:

• Financial inclusion,
• Payday alternative and small-dollar lending,
• Establishing partnerships with NeighborWorks,
• Export financing for small businesses, and
• Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering regulations.

NCUA staff can provide answers to any questions about registering with or using LMS services by contacting CURELMS@ncua.gov.

The NCUA launched the LMS in 2017, and the Office of Credit Union Resources and Expansion manages the site, which operates at no charge to its users. More than 1,900 credit union management and staff members have taken advantage of LMS courses and webinars, which are open only to credit union employees and volunteers and which require each user to create an individual account.

Providing training and other technical assistance to credit unions helps these institutions thrive and meet the evolving financial needs of their members and by extension, their communities. This is one of the pillars of the NCUA’s financial inclusion initiative, ACCESS: Advancing Communities through Credit, Education, Stability, and Support. To learn more about the ACCESS initiative, visit www.ncua.gov/access.