LANSING, Mich. – Commissioner Frank Fitzgerald of the Michigan Office of Financial and Insurance Services announced changes to the state's credit union field-of-membership policies and procedures that will allow the state's 285 SCCUs to include in their FOM students in grades K-12 within defined communities for community credit unions and as a discreet group for association credit unions. The changes also increase credit unions' ability to provide financial services to retirees. Fitzgerald authorized an OFIS policy change that permits the inclusion in a SCCU's FOM of retirees living in, or belonging to, a retirement association located in counties contiguous to any county in which the CU has a main or branch office. The changes also remove a "burdensome" regulatory requirement that CU applicants for new or expanded community-based field of membership had to complete. OFIS has eliminated the requirement that CUs applying to establish or expand community-based fields-of-membership provide written notification to each credit union within the geographic boundaries of the proposed community. The old policy of requiring the applying credit union to notify area credit unions of the application added no value to the review process, said Fitzgerald. The changes, said Fitzgerald, will reduce the regulatory burden for Michigan's state-chartered credit unions. The changes are effective July 1, 2002.