America First is denied expansion

The nation's regulatory agency over credit unions has reversed its earlier decision to approve America First Federal Credit Union's expansion into several Utah counties.

An America First executive, however, says the credit union will "continue to advocate" for people in so-called "underserved" areas.

The National Credit Union Administration last year approved Ogden-based America First's expansion to new fields of membership, but a lawsuit filed in November by the American Bankers Association, the Utah Bankers Association and five Utah banks challenged that decision. They alleged that the NCUA was wrong to allow community-chartered credit unions such as America First to add underserved communities, saying that only multiple common-bond credit unions could do so under existing law.

The NCUA now has requested an extension to respond to the lawsuit, rescinded the America First application approval, issued a moratorium on further expansions into underserved areas and plans to review its rule on expansion applications.

Attempts to contact the NCUA for comment were unsuccessful Tuesday, but America First on Tuesday said it had agreed to cooperate with the NCUA and withdraw from its membership field portions of five counties. It had received NCUA approval to serve those areas under the NCUA's "long-standing policy of permitting all federal credit unions to serve underserved areas," it said.

"While America First has agreed to cooperate with NCUA at this time, we want to underscore the importance of credit unions providing financial services to residents of areas defined as underserved, and will continue to advocate for those residents," John Lund, America First executive vice president, said in a prepared statement.

"By discontinuing the pursuit of new members in areas designated as underserved, America First seeks to cooperate fully with the National Credit Union Administration, and allow the agency time to further analyze and evaluate credit union service to this important segment of our communities. This decision in no way affects the services offered to our existing membership."

In a prepared statement, Howard Headlee, president of the Utah Bankers Association, declared the NCUA actions a victory for banks.

"We expected to win, but we didn't expect it to be this soon or this easy," he said. "The law is very clear. Unfortunately, the NCUA and the largest credit unions sometimes think they are above the law.