RICHMOND, Va. — The Coalition for Credit Union Charter Options has argued in a brief before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals that its member credit unions are actively considering converting to a mutual bank charter and that they are being financially harmed by NCUA's over regulation of the conversion process.

The brief, which was filed March 28, argues that the District Court for Eastern Virginia erred when it judged that Coalition credit unions were not being harmed because they had no immediate plans to convert to mutual bank charters and that credit unions actively considering conversion and not moving forward because of NCUA regulations were paying for the agency's regulations.

"As a consequence, Coalition members are being harmed by having both the new business opportunities and lower operating costs associated with the bank charter overpriced and thereby indirectly denied by the NCUA's illegally adopted regulations," the Coalition argued in its brief. "For example, and as set forth in Paragraph 8 of the complaint, credit unions must place an amount equal to one percent of the deposits into an account with NCUSIF."