BIRMINGHAM, Ala./TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—The strategic partnership between the League of Southeastern CUs & Affiliates and the New York Credit Union Association is progressing as planned, reports LSCU.
“The launch of League Consolidated Services Inc. (LCS) is on schedule through the first quarter of 2016,” said LSCU President and CEO Patrick La Pine in LSCU’s daily newsletter. “This joint venture will combine back office and other support services that are not state specific so that we can focus resources on advocacy and other core functions of the league.”
La Pine noted that the partnership will not only save the leagues money through eliminating redundancies and creating greater scale, “but it is also designed to harness the staff expertise in both organizations for the betterment of our credit unions. One example of this is compliance. We are in the process of exploring how to best combine and expand our compliance support to provide CUs in Alabama, Florida, and New York with a Total Compliance solution. We plan to unveil this concept later this year.”
The full integration of support services through LCS is scheduled to happen in phases over the next three years, added La Pine.
“Initially, we are combining finance and accounting, human resources, information technology, education and training, marketing and communications, and compliance,” he said. “The benefit (to league CUs) is that with the additional resources gained through collaboration, we can be better advocates and offer enhanced services . . . Over the course of this year, we will be giving our credit unions regular updates on the progress of this partnership.”
The two leagues are not alone in seeking to reduce backoffice expenses. The California and Nevada leagues, the New Jersey league and the Maryland/District of Columbia league have formed Plexcity to share common backoffice functions. The Ohio league, Hawaii league and NASCUS have also invested in the company or are using some of its services.