.creditunion
| Status: | Proposed |
| Registry Provider: | Afilias |
| Type: | Generic |
| Category: | Commerce |
| Priority #: | 476 - CUNA |
More information: 
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.creditunion is a new gTLD proposed under ICANN's New gTLD Program. CUNA, the Credit Union National Association, is the only applicant for the TLD. They plan to offer the domain for $100 - $200, and through polling of various credit unions found that about 60% of respondents were interested in obtaining a .creditunion address.[1]
Application Details
The following is excerpted from the applicant's response to question #18:
"18.1 Mission and Purpose of .Creditunion The intention of CUNA Performance Resources, LLC (ʺCUNA LLCʺ) in filing this application is to provide a trusted, hierarchical, and intuitive namespace for entities that have a meaningful nexus with the credit union sector. Such entities include but are not limited to, credit unions, credit union trade associations and leagues, credit union service organizations, regulatory bodies, and entities offering products and services aimed primarily at credit unions.
18.1.1 CUNA Performance Resources, LLC
CUNA LLC was formed in Wisconsin, USA, on January 15, 2004 and its sole member is the Credit Union National Association, Inc. (“CUNA Inc.”). CUNA Inc. is the premier national trade association serving Americaʹs credit unions. This not-for-profit trade group is governed by volunteer directors who are elected by their credit union peers. CUNA Inc. represents the interests of, and provides a wide variety of products and services to, approximately 90 percent of America’s 7,300 state and federally chartered credit unions.
Credit unions in the United States have been a part of the financial services industry for more than one hundred years and currently hold almost one trillion dollars in assets. Credit unions are not-for-profit financial service cooperatives serving more than 90 million members in the United States alone. Globally, there are more than 50,000 credit unions in 100 countries, serving over 180 million people.
18.1.2 Potential Business Models
CUNA LLC is still analyzing potential use case options for the type of domain names that will be permitted to be registered and by whom. Specifically, CUNA LLC is relying upon CUNA Inc. and other members of the credit union sector to help develop a framework that will ensure that the credit union community is provided information and services in a safe and trusted environment. The current best thinking involves a two-stage roll-out.
Stage One (3 months – 12 months)
The primary use of the .CREDITUNION gTLD will initially be primarily defensive in nature, with CUNA LLC registering a small number of second level domain names to CUNA Inc. and select members of the credit union sector. This initial use will provide select IT and security personnel within the credit union sector the ability to run a number of tests to ensure seamless and secure access to various websites, and interoperability with various software and web-based applications. This will take at least several months, and up to one year.
Stage Two (Following Conclusion of Stage One)
Once appropriate security and stability issues have been satisfactorily addressed, CUNA LLC will implement the appropriate Sunrise and Trademark Clearing House Rights Protection Mechanisms and expand the allocation of domain names within the broader credit union sector as identified above. This phased roll-out will likely take place as soon as CUNA LLC makes a business decision that it is the appropriate time to expand the registration universe and use of the new domain name, but any final decision is subject to change depending upon a range of external factors. During this same period of time CUNA LLC, in consultation with the credit union sector, will evaluate potential strategies to integrate with and⁄or migrate traffic away from the current patchwork network of second level domains registered in various TLDs, to the new .CREDITUNION gTLD.
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CUNA Inc. is committed to promoting a safe eco-system for the credit union sector by providing best in class safeguards that will evolve over time, continuing to incorporate additional security and other safeguards as necessary. In addition to implementing all of ICANN’s consensus policies and other Rights Protection Mechanisms (RPMs) identified in the Applicant Guidebook, CUNA LLC intends to provide the following registration policies in support of its goals: 1) REGISTRANT ELIGIBILITY POLICY. CUNA LLC will develop and publicly post on its website a charter providing a description of and the types of organizations that have a nexus with the credit union sector. Only those individuals and organizations meeting these criteria will be permitted to register a domain name in .CREDITUNION. To facilitate this timely validation, CUNA LLC is evaluating either conducting this validation internally; outsourcing it to a third party (i.e. Choicepoint as the original case of .TRAVEL); or automatically permitting registration based upon an individual’s or organization’s membership in an association. CUNA LLC is still reviewing the pros and cons of each of these options and has yet made an exact decision on the best validation process. 2) NAME SELECTION CRITERIA POLICY: CUNA LLC will initially require that third party registrants only register domain names that correspond with their business and⁄or trade name. This will minimize instances of phishing, malware, and cybersquatting in the .CREDITUNION gTLD registry. While it is the full intention of CUNA LLC to make available for registration generic, geographic, and other domain name strings that do not correspond to a registrant’s business and⁄or trade name to potential registrants meeting the nexus requirements, CUNA LLC has not yet decided on a suitable equitable allocation process. In fact CUNA LLC may not finalize this decision until after developing and implementing its own hierarchical and intuitive framework as outlined above to gain additional market analysis. 3) ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY: CUNA LLC will set forth a list of prohibited activities in which registrants must refrain from. Failure to comply with these requirements subject the domain name registration to suspension and or cancellation. This acceptable use policy is set forth in further detail in the response to Question 30. CUNA LLC is also proposing an enhanced Rights Protection Mechanism (RPM) that will allow trademark owners to challenge domain names initially reserved⁄allocated by the registry operator. This process will be modeled after the trademark challenge process adopted by dotAsia in connection with its Pioneering names process. 18.2.5 Will your proposed gTLD impose any measures for protecting the privacy or confidential information of registrants or users? If so, please describe any such measures. As the premier national trade association serving America’s credit unions, CUNA Inc. recognizes first hand that this is an evolving area of law in which there is no international standard. However, due to the fact that every domain name will be registered to an entity having a nexus with the credit union sector—the majority of which are direct members of CUNA Inc.—CUNA LLC has a vested interest in ensuring that accurate and current domain name information is readily available in connection with each .CREDITUNION domain name.
CUNA LLC will ensure that the operation of the .CREDITUNION gTLD will be consistent with CUNA Inc.’s Statement of Privacy Principles[.]
In addition, CUNA LLC intends to incorporate contractual language in its Registry Registrar Agreement (RRA) modeled after language utilized by existing ICANN gTLD registry operators. Specifically, CUNA LLC shall notify Registrar of the purposes for which Personal Data submitted to Registry Operation by Registrar is collected, the intended recipients (or categories of recipients) of such Personal Data, and the mechanism for access to and correction of such Personal Data. Registry Operator shall take reasonable steps to protect Personal Data from loss, misuse, unauthorized disclosure, alteration, or destruction. Registry Operator shall not use or authorize the use of Personal Data in a way that is incompatible with the notice provided to registrars. Registry Operator may from time to time use the demographic data collected for statistical analysis, provided that this analysis will not disclose individual Personal Data and provided that such use is compatible with the notice provided to registrars regarding the purpose and procedures for such use."[2]