Repeating our credit union history?

In 1998, I was a CUES editorial intern when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the National Credit Union Administration’s allowance of multiple common bonds.

CU Management closely followed the lawsuit and the subsequent Credit Union Membership Act. I remember watching the votes come through in the U.S. House and later in the Senate. I even wrote about the case for one of my final journalism classes.

Twenty years later, NCUA has been back in court defending field of membership modernization rules. With a split ruling in district court and future appeals, it could be years before final rules are determined. Will this have a chilling effect on credit union growth? For one CU, it almost did. Read our online article, “Field of Membership Dispute Nearly Derails Merger”, about how the federal ruling affected $614 million Merrimack Valley Credit Union, Lawrence, Massachusetts. Read more about the FOM ruling and how some credit unions are taking a different approach to growth in our cover story, “Enthusiasm for Expansion.”

 

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