With its corporate planning a wind down in 2011, Iowa credit unions took the first step last week in confronting the fallout from NCUA's corporate restructuring by signing a preliminary processing pact with the National Cooperative Bank of Washington.

The proposed linkup with the co-op bank, spurred by leadership of the Iowa Credit Union League and a servicing affiliate, has been on the drawing boards for months but still underscored the industry angst about how exactly to deal with provider services in the wake of the Sept. 24 restructuring.

Both leaders of the Iowa League and the $100 million Iowa Corporate Central CU of Des Moines, the smallest in the corporate network, stressed that the agreement for NCB to start offering a broad array of funding, item processing and wholesale services replacing the corporate remains preliminary. Any implementation of NCB servicing could be months away.