HARRISBURG, Penn. – The state Supreme Court yesterday overturned a lower court ruling and reinstated a controversial seven-county field of membership for Belco Community CU, the largest ever awarded by the Department of Banking.
The court’s ruling reverses a 2006 decision supporting the bankers’ challenge of the community charter encompassing 3.5 million people surrounding the state Capitol.
The ruling comes after the several bankers’ wins in both federal and state court challenging community charters for Pennsylvania credit unions.
The community charter will allow Belco Community, which had served more than 700 select groups prior to 2006, to serve the counties of Adams, Cumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon, Perry and York.
Throughout the legal challenge the $275 million credit union has continued its expansion plans and added more than 10 new branches since then. The expansion has had a cost, with Belco Community reporting a $930,000 loss for 2007 and a $210,000 loss for the first three quarters of 2008.
