Pennsylvania's K of C FCU Converts to State Charter, Applies for 4-County Community FOM

HARRISBURG, Pa. – Almost two weeks after the Commonwealth Court upheld Pennsylvania Secretary of Banking William Schenck's decision to approve community charters for Freedom CU and TruMark CU and rejected bankers' challenges, the state agency and expressed its "lack of objection" to K of C Federal Credit Union's application for a community charter. According to Department of Banking Press Secretary Heather Tyler, the agency uses the phrase "doesn't object" instead of "approves." The agency notified the credit union it still has to go through the state process before the conversion is finalized. She further explained the application was a two-step process – first K of C CU converted from a federal to state charter; then it converted from an association based charter to a community charter that allows K of C CU to serve the counties of Philadelphia, Bucks, Delaware and Montgomery. The combined population of the four counties, according to U.S. Census Bureau 2004 estimates, is 3,416,778. Tyler said the conversion will not be final until K of C CU provides the Pennsylvania Department of Banking with, among other things: certification of the members' votes to approve conversion; a copy of amended bylaws; copies of formed filed/approval of NCUA regarding the conversion; and revised/executed articles of conversion (as required by Section 1102(a)(3) of the Pennsylvania Credit Union Code. The credit union must also notify and divest of any select employee groups that fall outside of the new geographic service area, although current members retain their membership. Once the documents are received, the Department of Banking will coordinate with the credit union to deliver the articles to the Pennsylvania Department of State for filing.