JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - The Missouri Supreme Court may have given bankers standing to appeal a decision by the Missouri Credit Union Commission upholding a decision of the director of the state Division of Credit Unions that allowed Telcomm Credit Union to expand its field-of-membership to groups with more than 3,000 potential members. But the Commission is not letting the court's ruling stand in their way of reviewing similar FOM expansion applications from other CUs. The Commission at its Jan. 13th meeting, reviewed the field-of-membership expansion applications submitted by Goetz CU, St. Joseph, and Midwest United CU, Blue Springs, to expand their FOMs by groups with more than 3,000 potential members. Goetz CU has $27 million in assets and 7,500 members. Its FOM includes around 50 select employee groups and it applied to add Buchanan County, which surrounds most of the city of St. Joseph. Midwest United CU has $129.8 million in assets and more than 32,000 members. Its FOM includes Jackson and Clay Counties, as well as 240 SEGs. It applied to also serve Platte County. According to section 4 CSR 105-3.040 of the state credit union rule, the wording of which mirrors the state credit union statute, any credit union that wants to add a group to its FOM that includes more than 3,000 potential members has to first apply to the Commission for an exemption.. The Commission found the groups met the criteria for an exemption, and the Notice of Application for the credit unions will be published in the Feb. 17th issue of the Missouri Register. After a 10-day comment period, John Smith, director of the Division of Credit Unions, will make his decision on the CU's applications. "We're moving ahead with credit union expansion," said Smith. The director explained that many credit unions in Missouri are expanding their field-of-membership by communities rather than select employee groups because a provision in the state's credit union law stipulates that the first time a credit union expands its FOM, the board must declare if the CU will be community or SEG based. "So there's a great incentive for a credit union to become community-based," Smith said. -

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