OmniAmerican CU Petitions NCUA To Exit CUCharter

FORT WORTH, Texas - (07/27/05) -- Against all odds, OmniAmerican CUbecame the second billion-dollar credit union to petition NCUA thissummer to approve its vote to convert to mutual savings bank, aconversion approved by an overwhelming 76% of voting members twoweeks ago. But NCUA, which is expected to reject the vote, askedthe $1.2 billion credit union for additional information about thedisputed 'boxed disclosures' on the controversial mail ballots. Ina July 25 letter to OmniAmerican lawyers obtained by The CreditUnion Journal, NCUA Region Five Director Jane Walters requested anywritten instructions the credit union may have provided to TriState Financial Press, the printer of the disputed mail ballots onhow the ballots were to be presented and mailed. Walters also askedthe credit union giant why only 99,000 members were ruled eligibleto vote and sent ballots even though OmniAmerica's first quartercall report indicated they have more than 251,000 members. NCUA iswidely expected to rejected the vote as it did earlier this monthfor Community CU, based on what the agency has described as flawsin the mail ballots sent to credit union members. NCUA notifiedOmniAmerican CU in May that it violated the agency's rules oncredit union conversions in the way the boxed disclosures, thoserequired by NCUA to explain the ramifications of the chartersswitch, were presented to members in the mail ballot. NCUA rejectedthe ballot by Community CU on the same grounds. The $1.4 billioncredit union--the biggest ever to seek conversion to a bank--hasfiled suit in federal court in Dallas to overturn the agency'sruling.