DENVER — How interested were the banks in acquiring all or part of the failed Norlarco Credit Union of Fort Collins?

If you ask NCUA which managed the conservatorship last July and the bidding procedure last month for the soon-to-be-finalized takeover by Public Service CU, there were no “bids from a banking institution.”

But CU officials in Colorado say there were reports of banks at least wanting to acquire some of Norlarco's six branches in Fort Collins, a growing college community north of Denver.

And the president of the Colorado Bankers Association, Donald Childears, claims a bank which he declined to identify had tried unsuccessfully with NCUA to join the bidding procedure but was rebuffed by the agency. “I understand they wrote NCUA to protest their denial,” said Childears.

The NCUA, in awarding the good assets of the $230 million Norlarco to PSCU of Denver, had identified the finalists as the $630 million PSCU, the $1.5 billion Bellco CU of Greenwood Village, and the $2.4 billion Ent FCU of Colorado Springs. In denying claims of bank bidders, John McKechnie, NCUA director of public and Congressional affairs, said also the agency “followed established procedures and acted in the best interests of the Norlarco membership and the NCUSIF.”