I'm thinking this means an easier entrance for joining CU's.
(Cut and pasted from the current March 2015 ACC Newsletter)
After an exhaustive 15-month process, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), which regulates federally chartered credit unions, has deemed the American Consumer Council (ACC) to be fully compliant with its guidelines as an associational select employer group (SEG).
In a letter dated February 18th to ACC’s legal counsel, Michael Bell, Gail Laster, Director of the NCUA’s Office of Consumer Protection (OCP), stated that “ACC has the characteristics of a common bond that qualify it (or its individual chapters) for inclusion within the fields of membership of federal credit unions…”
The NCUA began its review of ACC and other national associations in September 2013 to ensure that large national associations met the NCUA’s “Totality of the Circumstances” test. At a meeting on December 15, 2014 in the Washington, D.C. area, representatives of OCP and the NCUA’s General Counsel’s office announced that “ACC had met the NCUA’s Totality of the Circumstances test requirements and could continue to partner with credit unions to enroll its 160,000 members in federal credit unions.
ACC’s Chairman of the Board, David Romanski, Esq. stated, “This is welcome news for ACC, our 160,000 members and our credit union partners across the nation. The NCUA conducted an exhaustive review of all aspects of our national association, and we are pleased after their 15-month review that they have found ACC to be fully compliant in all areas of their associational SEG requirements. We now look forward to moving ahead to expand our relationships with credit unions and complete our nationwide service network so that ACC members have choices regarding their financial needs.”
Romanski added, “During the NCUA’s long review process, 18 credit unions that had submitted applications to the NCUA-OCP to add ACC as an associational SEG, have been frozen. We would hope the Office of Consumer Protection will now act swiftly on those applications and approve their requests. Thousands of consumers are awaiting the NCUA’s action.”
Romanski also applauded the involvement of thousands of consumer-members of ACC who wrote emails and letters to the NCUA-OCP asking the federal regulators to recertify the American Consumer Council as compliant. “This was a grassroots effort by our members,” Romanski noted, “and we are proud of our high level of member engagement and their willingness to get involved in this process.”