Field of Membership

In order for credit unions to best serve Main Street America and everyday Americans in the 21st century, the federal credit union charter must keep pace with changes in state laws, technology, and the financial services industry. Critically, the federal charter must have modern field of membership (FOM) requirements that allow credit unions to meet the needs of communities in today’s financial services marketplace. We fundamentally believe that the credit union industry's dual chartering system works best when the state and federal charters keep pace with each other. Several states, however, have been much more progressive in modernizing their credit union FOM rules to recognize today's dynamic and ubiquitous marketplace. America’s Credit Unions continues to advocate for legislation that would allow all credit unions to add underserved areas to their FOM.

While we acknowledge that legislation is necessary to relax aspects of the Federal Credit Union Act's limitations on chartering, we firmly believe the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) can enact constructive regulatory relief by streamlining its chartering and field of membership (FOM) procedures, as well as removing all non-statutory constraints on FOM chartering and expansion.