HARRISBURG, Pa. — The Pennsylvania State Supreme Court agreed to hear oral arguments Nov. 28 in the field of membership portion of a lawsuit brought by a conglomerate of banking groups against the Pennsylvania Department of Banking.

"Mainly, it's a review of what the state regulator did or didn't do," Pennsylvania Credit Union Association Executive Vice President/General Counsel Rick Wargo explained. The Pennsylvania Bankers Association has called into question whether the state regulator properly reviewed the information provided leading to its decision to approve community charters for Freedom Credit Union and TruMark Financial Credit Union.

Wargo drew a distinction between this case and the one at the federal level, American Bankers Association vs. NCUA, in that the Pennsylvania regulator held four days of hearings in July 2004. "We felt the regulator bent over backward," he said, to afford interested parties the opportunity to comment. The ABA has challenged that NCUA did not consider information from the opposition, among other things.