NCUA Spokesman John McKechnie said Dave Shelter, deputy director for the Office of Corporate Credit Unions, was only speaking hypothetically yesterday during the NCUA's Town Hall webcast when he described how the agency would liquidate U.S. Central FCU and Western Corporate FCU.

In his response to an audience question asking how long the NCUA planned to keep the two seized corporates in conservatorship, Shelter said U.S. Central and WesCorp still provide valuable products and services to other corporates and natural person credit unions. So, until the NCUA releases its legacy assets plan and final corporate regulations, it will be "business as usual" at U.S. Central and WesCorp.

But, Shelter continued, after the NCUA releases its legacy assets plan, it would "make an announcement" regarding the future of the two corporate credit unions, and at that time would "begin a transition period" for users to migrate to other service providers.

McKechnie said Shelter was merely responding in a hypothetical way that "tried to outline the NCUA's plans to be flexible and deal with any eventualities."

"The reality is that our goal, whether the option is conservatorship or liquidation, is to maintain stability and enable the member credit unions to continue to receive uninterrupted services," McKechnie said.