The funds in your Credit Union are protected by the National Credit Union Administratiion (NCUA) similar to the Central Banks using (FDIC). The NCUA holds funds (?) in reserve for protection on NCUA Credit Union Accounts. Both of these agencies were required to maintain a designated amount in reserve (say 10%) however, the rules on the amount required were CHANGED with the passage of the Dodd/Frank Act which implemented “Fractional Banking”. In other words the amount that was to be reserved could be reduced to any percentage of deposits, yes even zero. In the event of failure the NCUA or the FDIC may not actually have funds to protect your account. Your account may or may not actually have the money to secure your account and what funds are available may have some order in how those funds are dispersed. Using a Credit Union is better than a Civilian Bank because the funds in the Credit Union are assets owned and controlled by the members. Small local banks a less likely to encounter major failure but could also be easily bought by the major Central Banks. When that occurs your protection becomes as valuable as the larger banks if they have funds in reserve. When the central banks buy out the smaller banks, whatever protection the FDIC was provided would move to the money pool and disbursement procedures.