The $1.8 billion HarborOne Credit Union said Monday it receivedthe green light from NCUA and the Massachusetts Division of Banks,clearing two of the three regulatory agency hurdles that wouldallow the 96-year-old Brockton, Mass., credit union to convert intoa mutual co-operative bank charter.

What's more, the credit union said it received notification fromthe FDIC that its application was officially accepted forprocessing. HarborOne must wait for approval for FDIC insurancebefore completing its conversion in what would be perhaps thelargest credit union-to-bank conversion to date.

“HarborOne Credit Union today announced that the NCUA Office ofConsumer Protection has notified HarborOne that it complied withthe procedural requirements of the NCUA's conversion regulations,”reads a statement released by HarborOne CU.

“HarborOne also received notification from the MassachusettsDivision of Banks that it finds no reason to disapprove of themethods by which the membership vote was taken and that the vote isapproved,” the statement said.

Nearly 62% of HarborOne members voted in favor of the charterchange proposal last month. The credit union said 22,433 ofits 139,078 members cast ballots.

HarborOne has grown to become the largest state-chartered creditunion in New England. The longstanding credit union has said itsreasons to convert were the flexibility to expand HarborOne'smarkets and customer base, increase its lending authority,including small business lending, and gain access to additionalcapital.

Soon after the conversion plan was announced Feb. 16, 2012, andapproved by HarborOne's board a month later, it sparked industrydebate and criticism from some credit union leaders.

Longtime credit union attorney Steven R. Bisker of Alexandria, Va., told Credit UnionTimes last month that members who voted for the conversionwere not voting for their own best interest. He argued that NCUAdata has consistently shown that when a credit union converts to abank, the rates charged for loans and the rates paid for savingsare not as good as when they were operating as a credit union.

Another credit union attorney, Richard Garabedian in Washington,D.C., who specializes in conversions, said he doesn't think theHarborOne move will trigger a wave of similar efforts.