William Stewart, former Southeast Corporate FCU member relationship manager, has beenhired by the Washington-based National Cooperative Bank to help theinstitution increase its credit union book of business.

Stewart fills a newly created position at the $1.7 billion NCB:vice president, credit union market leader.

Stewart and NCB Senior Vice President Pat Connealy spoke withCredit Union Times on Wednesday about the bank's pursuitof credit union correspondent business as for-profit banks shedtheir credit union customers.

The NCB's pursuit of credit union correspondent servicesbusiness follows a successful 2011 deal with the Iowa Credit Union League, inwhich the bank replaced services provided by the now-shuttered IowaCentral Corporate CU.

New credit union clients are not only a way to expand a new lineof business, Connealy said, but also build core deposits on theNCB's balance sheet, which bucks the trend in corporate creditunions to keep deposits off the balance sheet as they meet tougher capitalrequirements.

The NCB's intent isn't to take business away from corporatecredit unions, he said, but instead reach those credit unions thatare reluctant to contribute capital to gain access to corporateservices but haven't yet settled upon a permanent correspondentservices solution.

“There's a lot of opportunity out there,” Connealy said. “Ourchallenge is figuring out where to focus our efforts because wedon't have unlimited resources.”

As for banks such as the Columbus, Ohio-based Huntington Bankand the New York-based JPMorgan Chase, which both blamed BankSecrecy Act compliance as a reason for dumping credit union clients, Connealy said he doesn'tanticipate BSA or other compliance issues will be a problem.

“We're regulated by the (Office of the Comptroller of theCurrency), and I can guarantee when they come here, they look atour correspondent banking services just like they do loans andeverything else,” he said.

“But as long as we're in compliance that should never be anissue. We're not going to make an excuse like the BSA; and, thatsounds like what everyone has speculated, that it's just anexcuse,” Connealy said.