Since the recent news about bank failures, I’ve received several queries from readers on the insurance that covers accounts at credit unions, and on the health of credit unions.

The deposit insurance at credit unions is similar to what the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation provides to bank customers.

The National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund, backed by the U.S. government, provides credit union members with $100,000 in coverage for their individual accounts.

If you have more than $100,000 at any single credit union, there are several ways you can get additional coverage, depending on how you structure the accounts.

Joint owners of an account are insured for up to $200,000.

Also, retirement account insurance is separate from coverage for other credit union accounts.

Individual retirement accounts — both traditional and Roth — are insured in total for up to $250,000 at each credit union.

The insurance fund is in “strong condition,” JoAnn Johnson, then chairwoman of the National Credit Union Administration, said last month. Her agency regulates federal credit unions.

“While there are isolated instances of credit unions encountering difficulties, on the whole, the credit union industry is healthy,” Johnson said. The insurance fund “enters the second half of 2008 secure and well-capitalized.”

Credit unions have made a conscious effort to assure members that their money is safe.

“While we have been reading about the credit crunch in the banking industry, we have nothing to worry about at Resource One,” Jim Brisendine, chief executive of Dallas-based Resource One Credit Union, said in a recent letter to members.

Credit unions say they haven’t experienced the problems that banks have because they’re not-for-profit financial cooperatives focused on serving their members, not shareholders.

“We simply haven’t experienced the problems to the degree some of our for-profit counterparts have,” said Dick Ensweiler, chief executive of the Texas Credit Union League. “Our loan portfolios are performing quite well, despite current economic conditions.”

Credit unions do offer members many benefits. Their deposit rates are typically higher than banks’ and their loan rates are generally lower.

Some say one reason is that Congress exempted credit unions from federal income taxes because of their cooperative not-for-profit status.

This has long been a sore point for banks, which argue that the tax-exempt status gives credit unions a huge competitive advantage.

Credit unions that have large fields of membership and offer bank-like products and services should be taxed like banks, said John Heasley, general counsel of the Texas Bankers Association.

“Because they’re acting like banks, they should be taxed like banks,” he said.

It’s not surprising that credit unions are using troubles in the banking industry to trumpet their advantages. You expect that in a competitive environment.

But let’s keep some perspective here. Despite the eight bank failures we’ve had nationally so far this year, the industry is holding its own.

“Overall, the industry is doing well,” said David Barr, FDIC spokesman. “Almost 99 percent of the banks are well-capitalized.”

So all this means that you have many options to decide where to put your money, including credit unions and banks.

Pamela Yip is a personal finance writer for The Dallas Morning News and can be e-mailed at pyip@dallasnews.com.