The NCUA Board (Board) is amending its chartering and field of membership rules with respect to applicants for a community charter approval, expansion or conversion. The Board will allow the option for an applicant to submit a narrative to establish the existence of a well-defined local community instead of limiting the applicant to a presumptive statistical community. Also, the Board will hold a public hearing for narrative applications where the proposed community exceeds a population of 2.5 million people. Further, for communities that are subdivided into metropolitan divisions, the Board will permit an applicant to designate a portion of the area as its community without regard to division boundaries.