Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt, a Republican, is expected to sign into law a bill that could bring an end to lawsuits over credit union expansion.
The bill, which the Legislature passed last month, is the product of more than six months of negotiations between banks and credit unions; it would clarify geographic fields of membership.
Peggy Nalls, the senior vice president of legislative affairs at the Missouri Credit Union Association, said that credit unions would give up statewide fields of membership in exchange for clearer language on credit union expansion "that caused all the lawsuits."
Bankers have sued to block at least 10 credit unions' planned field-of-membership expansions that had been approved by the state regulator under legislation based on the federal credit union laws. One of the most visible was over one credit union's request to serve nearly 800,000 people in the 417 area code.
The new legislation would permit a credit union to expand throughout the county in which its headquarters is sited, as well as in contiguous counties but not statewide. The bill would not explicitly invalidate pending lawsuits, but observers said it would set the stage for settlements.
It also would effectively restrict banks' ability to block a credit union's expansion by a lawsuit.
