ALEXANDRIA, Va.—During a meeting with NCUA here, NAFCU discussed the possibility of streamlining the application process for expansions of community charters in anticipation of the agency’s approval of a final field-of-membership rule.
Michael Emancipator, NAFCU’s senior regulatory affairs counsel, and Ann Kossachev, regulatory affairs counsel, met with staff from NCUA’s Office of Consumer Protection. NCUA told the NAFCDU reps it has completed its review of the more than 11,000 comments received on its FOM proposal, which seeks to provide regulatory relief for all charter types. If finalized, this rule would be the first major revamp of FOM regulation in more than 10 years.
NAFCU said that during the meeting NCUA staff noted that if the new rule is finalized, staff will work to change and update the application for expansion into a more user-friendly format.
In its comment letter, NAFCU expressed support for the proposal but urged that more be done to give the industry regulatory relief, including: eliminating or increasing the core-based statistical area population, establishing a formal notification process for credit unions making FOM-related applications, and considering new ways to efficiently authorize mergers.
NAFCU has also backed recently introduced legislation from Reps. Tim Ryan (D-OH) and Donald Norcross (D-NJ), that would allow credit unions of all charter types to add underserved areas to their fields of membership. NAFCU said it has long advocated allowing credit unions more flexibility in reaching out to underserved areas.