U.S. Central and the NCUA have retained the services of PrairieVillage, Kan.-based Michael Shirley Associates; and, according to arepresentative for the firm, the regulator expects the institutionto survive corporate restructuring.

Partner Dan Heiman said U.S. Central is strongly considering aninternal candidate, Interim CEO Francois Henriquez, but wanted toexpand the search nationally to bring in a few more.

Heiman said his firm, which specializes in financial services,was aware of U.S. Central's financial problems, and asked the NCUAwhat their plans for U.S. Central were before agreeing to thedeal.

"They said look, we're paying a firm to do a search, sohopefully that tells you something," he said of the NCUA.

While U.S. Central will "clearly be different in the future,"Heiman said the NCUA thinks the franchise has value. He said he wastold former U.S. Central CEO Jim Nance was fired because "he wastrying to take (U.S. Central) down, as opposed to building it up,and (NCUA) were concerned because that was a direction they didn'twant to go."

Heiman said his firm had worked with U.S. Central in the past,and maintained the contact so that when the wholesale corporateneeded a hiring resource, "we were already there."