ALBANY, N.Y. – New procedures making it easier for the state's 39 state-chartered credit unions to add select employee groups went into effect Sept. 19. Gov. George Pataki signed into law a bill introduced by Sen. Hugh Farley (R-Capital) and Assemblywoman Aurelia Greene (D-Metro) that gives CUs the flexibility to diversity their memberships in a timely manner and ensures that SCCUs remain competitive with federal credit unions and other financial service providers. Instead of a process that used to take SCCUs several months, adding a new SEG under the new law should now take less than 10 days in most cases. The law also gives SCCUs permission to invest in the stock of a Federal Home Loan Bank.