More details have emerged about the proposed new correspondentservicesthat will be offered to Iowa credit unions as the state's corporatewinds down.

Wednesday's announcement said that Washington, DC-based NationalCooperative Bank (NCB) would join with The Members Group, a whollyowned subsidiary of the Iowa Credit Union League, to fill thegap.

Now Sara Flynn, CEO of Iowa Corporate Credit Union, has offeredmore specifics and a key point is that the definitive agreementthat was recently executed does not call for formation of a newentity to service Iowa credit unions.

Flynn explained: “The entity providing correspondent bankingservices to Iowa's credit unions is the NCB. TMG will continue toprovide customer service and operational support as part of thejoint effort to ensure a consistent experience for the Iowa creditunions.”

She said start-up will happen in early autumn: “The Iowa creditunion transitions will begin in late September and are expected tobecompleted by mid-October.”

As for costs, Flynn said, “The solution delivers an economicallyattractive solution to Iowa credit unions that offers better ratesthan the Fed and keeps the cost of services generally consistentwith pricing today at Iowa Corporate. In addition, the NCB solutiondoes not require any capital investment from the creditunions.”

As for why the Iowa League did not instead point its members toone of the corporates likely to survive, Flynn said, “We worked todesign a correspondent banking solution outside of the corporatenetwork not knowing the future state of corporate credit unions.“

She also said that at present the NCB-TMG solution is not opento non-Iowa credit unions.

“Currently the correspondent banking program is for Iowa creditunions only. At this juncture, the goal is to ensure a successfultransition of the Iowa credit unions prior to NCB entertaining anyother opportunities for correspondent banking,” Flynn said.

She also indicated that the majority of current Iowa Corporatemembers are expected to transition into the NCB-TMG offering.