NCUA Approves Combined Statistical Area that Had Previously Been Rejected by Federal Court

The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) in October approved a community charter that was previously rejected by a federal district court.

NCUA granted a community charter to New Cumberland Federal Credit Union serving the Combined Statistical Area of Adams, Cumberland, Dauphin, Lebanon, Perry and York Counties in Pennsylvania.

NCUA amended its regulations governing community charters by recognizing that a Combined Statistical Area with a population up to 2.5 million as a de facto well-defined. local community.

The Harrisburg-York-Lebanon Combined Statistical Area is comprised of four metropolitan statistical areas.

New Cumberland FCU had previously been granted this six-county region, but a federal judge in 2008 ruled that this region did not meet the requirement of being a local community.

The federal judge wrote "[t]o a casual observer familiar with central Pennsylvania, it would likely be a remarkable finding that . . . a geographical area of more than 3,000 square miles with a population of over 1.1 million people ... constituted a 'well-defined local community.'"