ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The NCUA Board approved a proposal at today'smeeting to clarify the agency's expectations for community charterapplications.

The proposed rule would retain the single political jurisdictiondefinition but change up some others.

NCUA has proposed a new Core Based Statistical Area requirementbased on definitions borrowed from the Office of Management andBudget. NCUA would further restrict this type of local community byrequiring it to not include a Metropolitan Division–an area withina CBSA with a core population of at least 2.5 million–but requiringthe core to hold the majority of the jobs in the area plusone-third of the population.

The agency is also seeking comment on a new category for thosecommunity charter applications not meeting either of thesedefinitions that would require a 30-day comment period and would beexpanded to underserved area adoptions.

“I believe that requiring a credit union to first show that anarea is a well-defined local community and then to also show thatit is underserved is not fully consistent with previously statedBoard policy,” NCUA Board Member Gigi Hyland said.

NCUA's proposal would also create a new Rural District field ofmembership primarily defined by population density.

It would pull back some flexibility with respect topre-approvals of “copy-cat” community charters, limiting thatpre-approval to 5 years.

In addition, NCUA is also seeking comment on voluntary mergersof community charters.