The NCUA on Tuesday announced it had awarded grants totalingclose to $2.5 million to help low-income credit unions expandservices to underserved communities, train staff, improvecybersecurity and provide students with work experiences.

“This grant round was the largest in [the] NCUA's history,” NCUABoard Chairman Rick Metsger said. “These grants will help creditunions provide affordable financial services to more people,improve operations and train a new generation of leaders.”

In this round, the NCUA awarded 116 grants totaling almost $1.5 millionto credit unions attempting to expand financial access tounderserved communities. The agency also awarded 112 grantstotaling $752,529 to credit unions to help them better protectsensitive data. In addition, the NCUA gave 33 credit unions some$125,795 to provide students with work experience and awarded$125,700 to four credit unions to help them train staff.