RICHMOND, Va.–Oral arguments are set to be heard here on Jan. 6 as part of a challenge to a field of membership expansion request by Virginia Credit Union.
As CUToday.info reported here, the $3.7-billion Virginia Credit Union is seeking to add the 10,000-member Medical Society of Virginia to its FOM, but the Virginia Bankers Association as well as more than a half-dozen banks are objecting, saying the move goes beyond the scope of credit union regulations.
“This is an effort on the part of a credit union to keep moving in the direction of looking more and more like a bank,” Bruce Whitehurst, CEO of the Virginia Bankers Association, told RichmondBizSense.com at the time of its challenge.
VACU initially applied to add the Medical Society of Virginia with Virginia’s Corporation Commission’s Bureau of Financial Institutions in late 2018, then withdrew the application, then refiled in March. The application was initially approved by BFI Commissioner Joe Face, leading to the VBA’s petition to stay the matter for further argument.
Senior Hearing Examiner is Set
According to Virginia Business, A. Ann Berkebile, a senior hearing examiner at the State Corporation Commission, has scheduled oral arguments for the case at the SCC’s Richmond courtroom.
The VBA and the banks — Abingdon-based First Bank & Trust Co., Altavista’s First National Bank, Danville’s American National Bank & Trust Co., Windsor’s Farmers Bank, Luray’s Blue Ridge Bank, Chesapeake Bank and the Bank of Charlotte County — argue that smaller local banks stand to lose customers to the Virginia Credit Union, which is seeking to extend membership to the Medical Society of Virginia, Virginia Business reported.
Virginia Credit Union said the Medical Society of Virginia approached it about offering membership as a benefit for their members.