No conversation about the future of corporate credit unions goes very far before an ugly question intrudes. Isn't it time to extinguish corporates entirely and turn the correspondent service work over to banks?

Which in turn raises the bigger, more fraught question. Can banks be trusted to do this?

Deep in the credit union DNA is a thick distrust of banks and, pointed out Dave Chatfield, chair of the corporate realignment task force. History proves the validity of this position. Roll back the clock 20 years, and many credit unions in the west had turned over their correspondent services to Security Pacific Bank, then a financial giant. But in 1992 it merged with the much bigger Bank of America, which soon decided to shut down the credit union department because it did not fit with BofA's larger strategic initiatives. That left dozens of credit unions scurrying to fill the void and, said Chatfield, it also left an indelible distrust of banks, at least for him.