By Joan Guilfoyle (September 21, 2018, 1:22 PM EDT) -- On Sept. 10, 2018, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued a notice of proposed rulemaking to implement Section 206 of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, or EGRRCPA, that was signed into law on May 24, 2018. Section 206 amended the Home Owners' Loan Act to add a Section 5A that creates a new designation that certain federal savings associations may choose to elect — that of a "covered federal savings association." A covered federal savings association will have all the same rights, privileges, and duties and responsibilities of a national bank operating in the association's home state but will retain the federal savings association charter and remain subject to various corporate governance provisions currently applicable to a federal savings association. Most notably, this election would permit a federal savings association to expand the types of lending activities it can conduct and relieve it of compliance with the qualified thrift lender test without having to formally change its charter, which can sometimes be a lengthy process and, for mutual federal savings associations, can only be done after first converting from mutual to stock form....