WASHINGTON — According to the Office of Thrift Supervision, no credit union has applied to convert to a mutual bank charter since August of last year.

The OTS lists the last application from a credit union to convert to a federal thrift charter as coming from Beehive Credit Union in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Sep. 10 2007. The agency has listed that a decision is required on the Beehive application by no later than July 30.

Alan Theriault, CEO of CU Financial Services, a consultancy which helps credit unions convert their charters attributed the slow pace of applications to uncertain economic times and unauthorized interference from NCUA in the credit union conversion process.

“Face it. NCUA has been acting as little more than a cheerleader for the industry as has not been authorized by the Congress to put so many obstacles in the way of a process that Congress wanted to be no more difficult than any other charter change by any financial institution,” Theriault commented on the lack of applications.