APPLE VALLEY, Minn. -- Without stating whether it plans to comply with NCUA's request to discontinue its offer of $200 payments to Continental Federal Credit Union's members, Wings Financial FCU said it is evaluating the regulator's position.

NCUA said yesterday that the payments $1.6 billion Wings Financial has said it will pay to Continental's more than 25,000 members should a merger between the two occur is "impermissible" under the provisions of the Federal Credit Union Act on the grounds that per capita dividend payments are not allowed and that no other legal authority exists for a FCU to make this kind of payment. The promise of a dividend by the continuing CU in a proposed merger, without the approval of the merging CU, is also not permitted, NCUA said it told Wings Financial.

In a statement sent late yesterday, Wings Financial said "While we are continuing to evaluate the NCUA's position, the larger point is that the Continental FCU belongs to its members and that money is rightfully theirs."

According to a Wings Financial spokesman, the CU is "pleased with the response we have received so far from the [Continental's] members we've spoken to regarding the benefits the merger of our two organizations would create, particularly the real dollar annual benefits that an average [Continental] member stands to gain from a merger."

Wings Financial representatives were in Houston yesterday meeting with Continental employees and the reception has "been very warmly received," the spokesman said.

"Our plan is to continue to talk about those benefits and to introduce ourselves to [Continental's] members," according to the Wings Financial spokesman.