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NAFCU President and CEO Dan Berger Monday urged the NCUA Board to "provide for a blanket reinstatement of any [field of membership (FOM)] statements removed" following the Supreme Court's denial to hear the lawsuit brought by the American Bankers Association (ABA) challenging the agency's 2016 FOM rule.

"As you are aware, many credit unions were stripped of certain FOM statements based on the D.C. District Court decision in 2018," Berger wrote. "With the Supreme Court’s denial of the bankers’ petition, the legal attack on NCUA’s 2016 FOM rule is now resolved. To streamline the chartering process, the NCUA should provide for a blanket reinstatement of any FOM statements removed due to the litigation. Reinstatement will allow for a quick and seamless process for credit unions to continue to provide vital financial services to re-adopted members, particularly in underserved areas."

NCUA Chairman Rodney Hood said the agency will consider a final FOM rule during its July 30 meeting. FOM was included on the NCUA's spring rulemaking agenda.

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 population limit for rural districts to 1 million people.

In response, the NCUA instructed credit unions to not accept any new members who would only be eligible under the vacated portions of the FOM rule and said it would not grant new community charters under the invalidated provisions.

NCUA appealed the district court's decision and the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals' three-judge panel decision in August was largely in favor of the NCUA on key issues in the lawsuit. NAFCU, CUNA and CUNA Mutual Group jointly filed an amicus brief in support of the NCUA's appeal, arguing that "this lawsuit is a clear and transparent attempt by bank lobbyists to hamstring credit unions' ability to help more American consumers."

The ABA petitioned the Supreme Court in March following appeals court's decision in December to not rehear the case en banc. The NCUA in May urged the Supreme Court to deny this petition.

After the appeals court's decision, NCUA Chairman Rodney Hood indicated the agency will phase-in the rule's implementation and subsequently released the proposed rule to address remaining concerns. NAFCU offered its support for the proposal and also met with the NCUA to discuss these efforts. The NCUA continues to work to address these concerns.