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

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

NCUA has proposed a new Core Based Statistical Area requirement based on definitions borrowed from the Office of Management and Budget. NCUA would further restrict this type of local community by requiring it to not include a Metropolitan Division–an area within a CBSA with a core population of at least 2.5 million–but requiring the core to hold the majority of the jobs in the area plus one-third of the population.

The agency is also seeking comment on a new category for those community charter applications not meeting either of these definitions that would require a 30-day comment period and would be expanded to underserved area adoptions.

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

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

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

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