<p>ALEXANDRIA, Va.-The credit union community saw a lot of charter activity in January. Six federal credit unions with more than $3 billion in aggregate assets converted to state charters while two others holding $131 million in assets actually converted to federal charters. Additionally, out of 20 credit union mergers, 10 federal and 10 state charters continued business with seven federals and 13 state charters merging, bucking the recent trend of more state chartered credit unions surviving than federals. The assets of the merging federal credit unions totaled just $10 million, while the merging state chartered credit unions came to $132 million. In keeping with another recently noted trend, however, Community Schools Credit Union, with $40.7 million in assets, converted from a state chartered credit union to a non-credit union entity as of the first of the year. Current patterns indicate that credit unions of increasing size are converting to thrift institutions. Community charter conversions continued into 2002 with four credit unions switching to geographically based fields of membership. Greenline Federal Credit Union of North Ridgeville, Ohio ($3.1 million); Peoples and Employees Federal Credit Union of Fort Wayne, Indiana ($6.8 million); National Steel Federal Credit Unions of Michigan ($43.3 million); and Aiea Federal Credit Union located in Hawaii ($1.3 million) took the plunge to serve their entire communities. NCUA also approved the addition of 48 underserved areas nationwide, adding over 2,226,029 potential members and putting credit unions on track to surpass last year's record addition of 16.1 million new potential members. No low-income community expansions took place in January. [email protected]</p>