HOBOKEN, N.J. — Serving the underserved and low-income groups was the main topic across the front page of Credit Union Times 12 years ago.

At the time, credit unions wishing to add low-income groups to their fields of membership or change their charter to a low-income community designation were experiencing mixed messages in regulations and guidelines from the NCUA. The NCUA regulations at the time stated that credit unions that wanted to add a low-income community had to demonstrate through surveys and letters from community organizations and businesses that a need and a desire for credit union service existed among the proposed group. However, credit unions reported that these requirements were not consistent. One example of the issue that was given in the article was of one a South Carolina credit union that got approved to take in a low-income group without even having a business plan while another credit union that had followed all the guidelines had to make three submissions to the NCUA. Director of the NCUA's Office of Community Credit Unions Joyce Jackson commented in the article that while the problem did exist it would be smoothed out over the summer.

Another NCUA front page story reported on NCUA ties to a Serving the Underserved conference. The NCUA had previously been referred to as the major sponsor of the conference, but an urgent request was made the chairman at the time, Norman E. D'Amours, to stop referring to the conference as being sponsored by NCUA in all publications and correspondence. The NCUA's step back from the conference came after former NCUA board member, Robert Swan, gave testimony before the House Banking Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee that allegations of NCUA examiners soliciting funds to help sponsor attendance at the conference were true. Another issue concerning the conference was speculation that the conference advisory committee had not fulfilled all requirements of the Federal Advisory Committee Act. NCUA spokesperson Bob Loftus commented in the article that "the legality of our part has been thoroughly researched and we've met all requirements."