ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The NCUA Board voted 2-1 March 15 to reject two credit unions' community charter applications, prompting the board members to say they will be looking into clarifying the Field of Membership and Chartering Manual.

Cinfed Federal Credit Union and Emery Federal Credit Union were both turned down by the region for community charters encompassing eight counties in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana with a population of 1.9 million people. The NCUA Board last week denied their appeal of the regional directors' decision on a 2-1 vote with Board Member Gigi Hyland voting to approve the community charter application and Vice Chairman Rodney Hood stating he was inclined to do so, but thought better of it in order to "do more for the credit union system…at this time."

While the region denied the application "due to a lack of sufficient evidence of interaction and similar interests," Hyland–a lawyer in her previous life–strongly disagreed. Despite the community spanning into three states and residents' ties to their individual towns, she said, "I am satisfied that the record reflects considerable evidence of social and economic interaction and common interests among the eight counties contained in the application centered around the city of Cincinnati." She noted the ties of employment and commuter patterns, professional sports teams based in Cincinnati, and a single airport, among others.