Bankers See NCUA Plot on FOM

WASHINGTON – Bankers from all over the country are up in arms about a proposal by NCUA to broaden community chartering requirements and are indicating a new legal challenge is in store if the NCUA Board approves it as a final rule. The opposition, illustrated in comment letters submitted to NCUA, is noteworthy because it includes numerous banks and the California, Missouri, Kansas, New Mexico, North Carolina and Ohio bankers associations, but also Wells Fargo, indicating that the nation’s largest banks are now getting involved in the fight against credit unions. The proposal, wrote Mark Lliteras, vice president of Southern Idaho commercial lending for Wells Fargo, “would significantly expand the definition of community beyond any reasonable definition of ‘local’ and circumvents Congressional intent as expressed in the Credit Union Membership Access Act.” NCUA’s proposal would automatically establish as a valid community certain core based statistical areas—a definition established by the White House Budget Office. The NCUA proposals comes as applications for community charters are rapidly drying up, with just one application approved last month, and only 17 approved through the first six months of the year, down from an average of more than 10 a month for each of the last seven years.