Capital Briefs: ABA Seeks Reversal of Saco Valley Ruling

The American Bankers Association urged the Maine Supreme Judicial Court to overturn a decision giving Saco Valley Credit Union permission to expand its field of membership to include residents in surrounding communities.

The ABA argued in a June 12 friend of the court brief that federal and state laws require credit unions to serve a distinct community. Saco Valley, by including residents in numerous surrounding communities, is violating that restriction, it said.

Saco Valley has made a "mockery of what a credit union is," ABA deputy general counsel for litigation Michael Crotty wrote in the brief. "Rather than a financial institution for persons sharing a community of interests, it is a polyglot of multiple common bonds of occupation and multiple common bonds of residence within disparate communities."

- Bill McConnell and Jaret Seiberg

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