Another prime topic at the meeting, he said, was mutual savings bank conversions. NCUA's Region V covers a swath of Western states including Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, California and Colorado.

Regarding the Red Rocks conversion, the president/CEO, Pat Ahern, said serious management consideration began last May following NCUA roadblocks to FOM expansion for employee groups served by Red Rocks.

While a community charter, Red Rocks found itself unable to serve SEGs under NCUA rules, which follow banker-led court action in Utah on FOM policies.

Though he has not talked to many of his peers outside of Colorado, he surmised FCUs in Region V also feel the effects of NCUA FOM policies.

"Thank goodness for the dual chartering system that we can make this kind of change now since we've had to endure all those freezes on employer groups," explained Ahern.

Final paperwork for the switch to a state charter should be completed "within a few days," he said.

When asked for a reaction about the Portland meeting and Red Rocks, NCUA said it would have no comment on Red Rocks and said it contacted its Region V field office and found no undue alarm about conversions beyond a "slight exodus."

"There's an ebb and flow" to conversion changes, said John McKechnie, director of public affairs and congressional relations for NCUA, adding, "We do not know of any real trends" in the direction of fed-to-state conversions in the district.

The Colorado commissioner, Myklebust, did note the Red Rocks conversion was the first in a year in his state.

It is known, however, that in Utah, a state in which state CUs fled the state charter to federal because of restrictive bank-inspired laws three years ago, at least one Utah CU has complained his application for a federal charter has been delayed for months because of NCUA being tied up in FOM litigation. –[email protected]