If more people transfer their accounts to credit unions becauseof Bank Transfer Day. it could be a mixed blessing for some creditunions.

Credit unions have to find ways to invest the money they receivefrom new deposits on or around Bank Transfer Day on Nov. 5. That could be a challenge becauseof low interest rates and caps of business lending, according toseveral industry experts.

“The new deposits push credit unions in a tough position becausethere is an increase in liquidity with nothing to invest in,” saidformer NCUA Board Member Geoff Bacino.

But former NCUA Chairman Dennis Dollar said since most of thenew deposits would be in the form of checking accounts, it's a netplus for credit unions.

“Those aren't high-balance accounts and are the most profitableaccounts that credit unions have because of the fees theygenerate,” he said. “Also, any increases that credit unions seewill take place gradually because those accounts are the hardest totransfer because of changes that have to be made when designatingdirect deposit and automatic bill pay. Bank Transfer Day isn't thebrainchild of a credit union marketing executive or a creativedirector of an advertising agency. Like other protest movements, itstarted in the blogosphere.

It was conceived by Kristen Christian, a 27-year-old owner ofthe Le Spec Gallery in Los Angles. She said in an interview thatshe wanted to “get a message out to young people about choices” butthat her online role is being wrongly misconstrued as “some kind ofterrorist.” She said since her proposal to close her Bank ofAmerica account and switch to a credit union was picked up on theviral blogs, she received numerous calls “from many credit unionpeople–tellers and managers” as well as trade organizations abouther cause.

CUNA Chief Economist Bill Hampel agreed with Dollar that anyincrease in deposits will come gradually. But Hampel said that thechallenges to credit unions won't come in the form of increasedliquidity as much as additional strains on their operations.

“It's a nice problem to have and that's where they could seechallenges for their staff,” he said.

Hampel added that if credit unions have an increase in assetsbecause of new deposits, it doesn't have to negatively affect theircapital ratio.

“You can calculate the ratio either by dividing the currentamount of capital by the current asset size or by dividing thecurrent capital level by the average asset size of the last fourquarters, whichever is more advantageous,” he said.

NAFCU Chief Economist Tun Wai advises credit unions that oncethey get the new deposits, to redouble their efforts to preventpeople from switching financial institutions.

“People move from financial institution to financial institutionconstantly, and you have to make sure you develop the rightrelationship with members and that will persuade them to stay withyour credit union,” he said. Credit unions and their tradeassociations have been stressing in their marketing materials thatthey offer better rates and lower fees than banks. In addition,because of expanded ATM networks, credit unions can compete withbanks in terms of convenience.

“ With banks announcing more fees and tougher fee exemptions,they have partially tried to justify these measures by emphasizingthe scope of their ATM and branch networks,” said Stan Hollen,President/CEO of CO-OP Financial Services. “However, credit unionscooperate with each other in a way banks will not, so credit unionscan offer the same level of convenience, along with service thatsurvey after survey confirms is superior to banks in consumersatisfaction.”

Coasthills FCU, President /CEO Jeff York, said they wouldwelcome additional members but haven't increased their marketingefforts yet. “We have made a decision yet about whether to increaseour outreach to tie in to the Bank Transfer Day. But we know thatmany people realize that we are one of the choices they have whendeciding on financial services providers and we are very appealingto a growing number of consumers,” said York, whose credit union isbased in Lompoc, Calif.. and has assets of $630 million.

A Facebook page for Bank Transfer Day said that “together we canensure that these banking institutions will ALWAYS remember the 5thof November!! If the 99% removes our funds from the major bankinginstitutions on or by this date, we will send a clear message andgive the 1% a taste of the fear that we experience every day whenwe aren't able to pay for our rent, food, medication, utilities,student loans, etc.”

Christian said she came up with the idea after becomingmotivated to “do something to help educate” those of her generationand others on megabank practices after seeing TV reports of NewYork police cracking down on Occupy Wall Street protesters. Sheadded that she wants to put her money in a credit union rather thana community bank because banks “have a tendency to get merged bythe larger banks.”

Jim Rubenstein contributed to this story.