HELENA, Mont.–Montana’s Credit Unions, the state CU association, said it is partnering with CUCollaborate to provide its member credit unions and league staff with access to the company’s newly released field of membership (FOM) evaluation tool. The software was launched in February of this year to coincide with the rollout of the NCUA FOM rules. The web-based tool is available to both leagues and credit unions through CUCollaborate’s website, www.cucollaborate.com.
“CUCollaborate’s FOM Evaluation Tool is an incredible resource—long days spent compiling, sorting, and calculating reports for all the ‘what-if’ scenarios can now be accomplished in a single afternoon’s work with the help of the software,” said Tracie Kenyon, president/CEO of Montana’s Credit Unions.
According to the company, an increasing number of credit unions are revisiting their eligibility rules and assessing their membership expansion options under the new NCUA FOM regulations, and CUCollaborate’s proprietary software makes it easier to identify the best path forward. “It allows users to visualize, experiment, and test numerous plans—all within a few clicks.”
The company said the software allows users to:
- See if a selection would be approved by the NCUA as a community charter, underserved area, or rural area.
- Search for employers by their characteristics, such as employer industry, number of employees, proximity to credit union branches, and whether the employer is already a Select Employer Group (SEG) of another credit union.
- Review other credit unions’ FOMs to support a user’s own FOM amendments, to conduct competitive analysis, or to identify merger opportunities.
- Pinpoint ideal locations for new branches by quickly considering the FOMs of other credit unions, consumer demographics, competitive financial institutions.
- Enjoy access to research tools that draw on CUCollaborate’s proprietary database and data provided by the NCUA, FDIC, Census Bureau, CDFI, and CFPB.