The NCUA announced Wednesday that 126 low income credit unionsare sharing $871,597 from the agency's 2013 Community Development Revolving Loan Fund's grant round.

“Low-income credit unions play an essential role in theircommunities and supporting their work is a priority for NCUA,” saidNCUA Board Chairman Debbie Matz. “The credit unions that receivethese grants will be extending outreach, growing membership andimproving income.”

See Here: The List of 2013 Grant Recipients

WilliamMyers, director of the Office of Small Credit UnionInitiatives, which administers the funds, said the grants reinforcesuccess at the community level.

“We're supporting the kind of innovation that has a direct andpositive result on people's lives,” Myers said. “We're especiallyproud of their efforts in collaboration and extending digitalservices.”

Low-income credit unions are often the only insured financialservices available to their members, and grants from NCUA'sRevolving Loan Fund help these institutions to expand services andprovide the capital that is the lifeblood of local economies, theagency said.

Congress has appropriated $10.4 million for the fund's grantssince 2001, the NCUA said.

The 126 credit unions represent roughly 55% of the 231 creditunions that applied for funds and the $871,000 represents roughly32% of the more than $2.7 million credit unions had sought.

The agency said low-income credit unions will use this year'sawards for a variety of purposes, including setting up electronicbanking systems and mobile banking platforms, offering reloadabledebit cards and lower-cost alternatives to payday loans, andproviding financial literacy for consumers and online training forstaff.

It did not provide details about individual grants.

Myers told attendees at the National Federation of CommunityDevelopment Credit Unions conference in June that the NCUA hopedsome of this year's grant money would go to helping 30 creditunions that still primarily use paper records to computerize and tohelp other credit unions still run out of managers' homes to moveinto commercial space.