NCUA Sets Bar on Disperse Community FOM

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- For the second time in two months, the NCUA Board yesterday set a hard-and-fast standard on community fields of membership, barring two Ohio credit unions from serving almost 2 million people surrounding Cincinnati. In rejecting separate from CinFed FCU and Emery FCU for charters covering eight counties in the three-state region (Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana), the NCUA Board ruled the disperse area does not meet NCUA requirements that a community FOM be well-defined and local. Yesterday’s ruling came just three weeks after the NCUA Board rejected a request from Del-One FCU to serve the 800,000 residents of Delaware, ruling that the tiny state does not qualify as a local community, either. The Board appeared ready to approve the two Ohio charter requests as Gigi Hyland said she believed they each qualified under NCUA regulations, and Rodney Hood said he was also persuaded. But Hood said he decided to vote against it, saying he would do more for the credit union system. In recommending rejection of the two Ohio charter requests, NCUA staff said the broad area, which covers three states, eight counties and 40 different municipalities, does not qualify as a single FOM with interaction between residents with common interests.