NCUA Draws the Line on Community Charters

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- The NCUA Board, which has been steadily expanding parameters for field of membership to include multiple counties encompassing millions of people sprawled across state lines, drew the line yesterday on community charters when it rejected a bid for a statewide charter. Though the request by Del-One FCU (formerly Delaware FCU) would only include three counties and 800,000 people in the Diamond State, NCUA ruled a statewide charter violates provisions of the FCU Act and its FOM and Chartering Manual which bars statewide charters. At least one state, Washington, has crossed the community chartering threshold and now allows its credit unions to serve the entire state. But as part of HR 1151, the 1998 CU Membership Access Act, Congress rewrote FOM standards to add the key word local to community chartering standards for federal credit unions, Hattie Ulan, special counsel to NCUA's general counsel, told the NCUA Board during yesterday's monthly meeting. And the agency does not believe an entire state comes under the definition of local community. No state meets the statutory requirement of being a local community, said Ulan.