The NCUA should have its proposed regulations for corporate reorganization ready next month or at year-end and by then credit union executives should be taking an active part in the comment period, the co-chairmen of the CUNA/NAFCU Corporate Credit Union Restructure Policy Task Force declared this week.

Commenting separately on the joint task force work since release of its recommendations Sept 3, CUNA's Terry West, CEO of Vystar CU in Florida and Michael N. Lussier, CEO of Webster First FCU in Massachusetts, appealed for industry patience amidst ongoing debate about "who is surviving" in a reference to NCUA's likely folding or consolidation of some of the 28 corporates.

The issue of corporate structure was renewed this week following worry in Iowa over the future of one of the nation's smallest corporates, the $94 million Iowa Central Corporate CU of Des Moines. The Iowa Credit Union League has filed application with banking regulators to buy a Tucson, Ariz. wholesale bank to cushion against high costs for member CUs should the corporate be consolidated.

The Iowa proposal represents "one kind of unique business model that might work for Iowa but I think we have to wait to see what the NCUA regulations bring forward," said West, president of his Jacksonville, Fla. CU.

As for small CUs and their role in the corporate outcome, Lussier, the NAFCU co-chair, said the industry needs to wait out release of the proposed regs suggesting "there is no reason to panic."