THORNDALE, Penn. – In a move sure to attract a legal challenge, the NCUA Board last week approved in closed session a community charter that will allow Citadel FCU to serve an estimated five million people in the Philadelphia metro area.
The new charter will allow the $1.3 billion credit union, which already serves Chester County, to add Bucks, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties, creating one of the biggest FOMs ever granted by the federal regulator.
The field of membership request was approved behind closed doors as three similar community charters approved by state regulators in Pennsylvania have been bogged down in court for the past four years in a challenge by the bankers.
Approval for the vast expansion comes nine months after a federal court in Pennsylvania struck down a much smaller FOM approved by NCUA for three credit unions which covered three counties and 1.2 million people in greater Harrisburg.
