The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court has overturned a broad community charter granted last year to a Harrisburg credit union and ordered the state Department of Banking to reexamine its decision.
The $250 million-asset Belco Community Credit Union won approval for a community charter that would allow it to serve nearly 2 million people in seven counties: Adams, Cumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon, Perry, and York. The community charter was one of the largest ever granted in Pennsylvania.
The court’s decision is a victory for the Pennsylvania Bankers Association, which had challenged the Belco charter and several other decisions by the agency to grant credit unions community charters that allowed them to broaden fields of membership.
The court also required the Banking Department to provide any interested parties access to its hearing file or records relevant to the charter conversion.
