LONDON–The Association of British Credit Unions (Abcul) has suspended its plans to migrate its member credit unions onto its new tech platform.
The modernization effort, known as Model Credit Union, is part of a larger Credit Union Expansion Project (CUEP) that has been led by the U.K.’s Department of Work and Pensions since 2014, according to Banking Technology. The overall program has been valued at £38 million, with the technology portion believed to be around £8 million, the publication added.
Abcul subsidiary Cornerstone Mutual Services has been carrying out the work. “The plan was to bring together a range of facilities, including a new core banking system and a new mobile app – both provided by Fiserv and migrate Abcul’s members onto this new shared platform, Banking Technology reported.
Abcul has more than 200 member CUs, of which around 35 have signed up for the new platform. To date, said Banking Technology, three have gone live: East London Credit Union, RetailCURe and Voyager Alliance Credit Union.
Banking Technology noted that Abcul CEO Mark Lyonette has said earlier this year that the plan was to roll out 30 CUs over the next 18 months. But now, said Banking Technology, the plan has come to a standstill, and that discussions between the DWP and Cornerstone’s board resulted in an agreement “to continue working with the DWP to develop plans for stabilizing the three live credit unions first, according to an Abcul letter to its members.
“We will, however, be halting the migration of any further credit unions onto the platform until we have achieved this stabilization,” Banking Technology quoted the letter as stating.
The letter adds that the Cornerstone and CUEP boards “remain committed to transformation and will continue to seek ways to enable all credit unions who wish to migrate to do so.”