ARLINGTON, Va.–When the NCUA board meets Thursday to finalize a rule to make its 2016 field of membership rule consistent with last year's decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, NAFCU is hopeful the agency will continue to take the approach it has in the past.
Carrie Hunt, EVP and general counsel with the trade group, told CUToday.info that when the board votes later this week “we expect the progressive approach that has long been NCUA’s interpretation of the FCU Act as broadly as possible. Of course, it’s hard to predict with these board members lately.”
Hunt said NAFCU has heard from some of its member credit unions that those that had their field of membership expansion requests put on hold while the litigation was ongoing have now had those requests approved.
The Broader Question
In terms of the broader question of whether the concept of field of membership remains a valid means of serving members, Hunt said NAFCU has not taken a position on that issue. She added FOM expansion remains an issue used by the banking industry to attack the credit union tax exemption, saying it remains a “tough battle.”
As CUToday.info reported, the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled largely in favor of the NCUA in the ABA lawsuit in August 2019 and sought additional explanation of the NCUA's decision to eliminate the urban-core requirement for local communities based on core based statistical areas. Putting an end to the litigation, the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this month declined ABA's petition to hear the lawsuit after the appeals court declined to rehear the case en banc.