WASHINGTON — One lawsuit brought by the American Bankers Association late in 2005 ended with non-multiple common bond credit unions being unable to adopt underserved areas and another, challenging NCUA's judgment of "well-defined community" is still awaiting a decision.

Early on in 2005, a Utah court stripped America First Federal Credit Union of its six-county community charter due to a lack of evidence of community, but NCUA subsequently approved the adoption of several underserved areas by America First that allowed the credit union to regain most of the area it had lost. The ABA then sued NCUA in the same court later that year based on statutory language that specified that multiple common bond credit unions, a new phenomenon from H.R. 1151, could adopt underserved areas, but left the authority for other charter types unclear in the law.

Congressman Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.) had inserted into the record in the debate over the Credit Union Membership Access Act, "By including explicit language authorizing multiple group credit unions to include underserved areas in their field of membership, we are not in any way restricting the ability of the National Credit Union Administration to allow community and single group credit unions to include underserved areas in their fields of membership."