MAPLE GROVE, Minn.–Building Trades FCU here has become the newest owner of the CUSO CU*Answers.
The $140-million credit union represents approximately 17,000 members, and becomes the 127thcurrent CU*Answers credit union owner.
“Congratulations to Building Trades Federal Credit Union, the second new owner of the 2018 fiscal year,” said Scott Collins, CU*Answers EVP of Sales. “There continues to be a strong desire within credit unions to engage with other peers in the collaborative processes offered within a true cooperative business model, such as CU*Answers. They want to exercise their equal voting privilege and direct input for helping set the future leadership and development direction of their technology partner. For most, this represents a unique and uncommon opportunity to actively participate.”
Affinity Credit Union in Des Moines, Iowa, became the 126th owner in October 2017.
Separately, Grand Rapids, Mich.-based CU*Answers reported it recently assisted Farmington, Utah-based Horizon Federal Credit Union with the deployment of its new disaster recovery high availability data replication process. As part of its strategic investment in business continuity, the credit union replaced its installed IBM backup server with IBM’s latest POWER8 server. The server was installed at Horizon’s new hot site located in St. George, Utah, the CUSO said.
“While Utah is a long way from the recent natural disasters in the southern U.S., the investment in business continuity is top of mind for our industry,” said Collins. “(CEO) Randy Gailey and his team at Horizon have always made prudent investments to ensure their member data is secure and their systems are operational. This project has been in the planning stages for several months and I am proud of both teams for deploying the new IBM technology at the St. George hot site in a seamless manner.”
CU*Answers said both the production and backup core servers at Horizon FCU leverage IBM’s POWER architecture, the IBMi operating system and IBM’s DB2 Universal Database. Collins added, “The IBM core environment provides our credit unions with tremendous scalability, reliability and cost-effectiveness.”
Finally, CU*Answers said it is reducing or eliminating some of its core data processing fees for credit unions with fewer than 2,000 members in an effort to help those credit unions reduce their overall expenses. These pricing changes will become effective with the release of the CUSO’s 2018Pricing Guides on Jan. 1, the company said.
“During our 2017 Leadership Conference this past summer, our CEO, Randy Karnes, announced to our customer-owners that the CUSO planned to reduce or eliminate fees to the tune of more than $2.5 million over the next three years,” said Collins. “The pricing actions we are taking with this year’s pricing guides are the first step in that direction. As a cooperative that is 100% owned by our credit unions, our mission is to help credit unions of all sizes survive and thrive, and we feel these fee reductions will not only help our partners from an expense standpoint, but also free up some funds to invest in their growth initiatives.”
Specific pricing initiatives for credit unions under 2,000 members include the waiver of the CUSO’s e-commerce fee (which includes online banking, mobile app, e-statements and e-notices) and many fees related to the processing of online ATM and debit card programs.