For Details, Contact:
External Affairs
email: pacamail@ncua.gov
Fax: (703) 518-6409

NCUA Board Considers Amending Its “Underserved Area” Approval Process

May 22, 2008, Alexandria, Va. – The NCUA Board today issued a proposed rule that would modify the agency’s chartering policy to update and clarify the process for approving credit unions to serve “underserved areas.”

Proposed Rule Interpretive Ruling and Policy Statement 08-2 would primarily modify NCUA’s Chartering and Field of Membership Manual in the following four respects:

1. Clarify the procedure for establishing that an “underserved area” qualifies as a “local community;”
2. Address the application of economic distress criteria (median family income, unemployment, poverty, county population loss and county migration loss) to determine if an area combining multiple geographic units is sufficiently distressed to qualify as “underserved;”
3. Update the documentation and clarify the scope requirements for demonstrating that a proposed area has “significant unmet needs” for loans and applicable financial services; and,
4. Recognize that meaningful data from NCUA and other federal banking agencies will be available to assess whether an area is “underserved by other depository institutions.”

The proposal includes methodology for using this data to compare the concentration of depository institution facilities among the population area’s non-distressed parts against the same facilities-to-population concentration in the proposed area as a whole.

“The regulations governing credit union adoption of underserved areas continue to assume a high degree of importance, particularly as Congress explores ways to enable consumers in disadvantaged communities to gain access to mainstream financial services. There is a clear interest in seeing credit unions serve underserved areas, and this proposed rule is an attempt to ensure that NCUA regulations facilitate that process,” stated NCUA Board Chairman JoAnn Johnson.

Proposed Rule IRPS 08-2 was issued with a 60-day comment period and will be available online: http://www.ncua.gov/RegulationsOpinionsLaws/proposed_regs/proposed_regs.html.

The National Credit Union Administration is the independent federal agency that regulates, charters and supervises federal credit unions. NCUA, backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government, also operates and manages the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund, insuring the deposits of over 87 million account holders in all federal credit unions and a majority of state-chartered credit unions.

                                                            -NCUA