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Following Tuesday's decision by U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to rule in favor the NCUA in the lawsuit challenging its 2016 field of membership rule, NAFCU Executive Vice President of Government Affairs and General Counsel Carrie Hunt provided insights into the decision in the Compliance, Risk & BSA Network.

"At a minimum, after this decision credit unions will be able to reach more members and have ways to move their credit union forward," Hunt said. 

In March 2018, the D.C. District Court declared two provisions of the rule to exceed the NCUA's statutory authority: automatically qualifying a combined statistical area of fewer than 2.5 million people as a local community and increasing the limit for rural districts to 1 million people. The appeals court remanded these decisions in favor of the NCUA.

Hunt said Tuesday's decision strongly reaffirms the Chevron Doctrine, which gives agencies deference as to their opinions. Hunt added that the Chevron Doctrine has been under attack as of late. 

"For credit unions, the stakes are always high but, preserving this doctrine will have the potential to embolden the NCUA to push the limits of the Federal Credit Union Act," Hunt said.

Hunt added that agencies are not infallible and all require a set of checks and balances, but generally allowing administrative agencies more flexibility is positive.

Hunt's full post is available on the members-only Compliance, Risk & BSA Network. The network is a great resource where compliance professionals share insights and information on various issues