NCUA finalized its latest field-of-membership rule Thursday at its board meeting, re-instating portions of the rule vacated in March 2018 by a U.S. District Court Decision. Those portions of the rule were upheld by a August 2019 D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decision, and the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to hear an appeal to the case in June.

“NCUA finalizing this rule completes an important modernization of FOM requirements that will allow credit unions to serve more Americans. This is particularly important when people around the country are feeling the impact of the pandemic,” said CUNA President/CEO Jim Nussle. “Consumers around the country will benefit from NCUA’s determination to modernize its field of membership rules, and CUNA and Leagues were proud to stand by the agency as bankers tried hard to deprive consumers of safe an affordable options for financial services.”

The final rule:

• Re-adopts a provision to allow an applicant to designate a Combined Statistical Area (CSA), or an individual, contiguous portion thereof, as a well-defined local community (WDLC), provided that the chosen area has a population of 2.5 million or less; and
• Adds an explicit provision to its rules to address concerns about potential discrimination in the FOM selection for CSAs and Core Based Statistical Areas.