Alliance One and Credit Union ATM Alliance merge

COLUMBUS, Ohio - What started out as an Ohio-only ATM selective-surcharging alliance may ultimately become a nationwide effort. Alliance One, a selective-surcharge ATM alliance run by Corporate One FCU, Columbus, Ohio, has merged with the Credit Union ATM Alliance, a selective-surcharge group developed by Service Centers Corporation of Michigan and the Michigan Credit Union League. The deal adds some 300 credit unions and over 800 ATMs to Alliance One. When the merger is complete, Alliance One will have more than 600 participating credit unions and approximately 1,600 ATMs. Corporate One executives wasted no time in bringing up the possibility of a credit union nationwide selective-surcharging alliance. "Our goal is to extend access to selective-surcharging terminals across the U.S.," said Lee Allen, Corporate One's senior vice president, payments systems and technology. "The addition of Credit Union ATM Alliance to the Alliance One group greatly extends our coverage ...." Lee Marciniak, senior vice president and chief network officer for SCC, said the group decided to merge with Alliance One because they liked Alliance One's chances of going nationwide. "We think that Alliance One has become a strong Midwest selective-surcharge group now that can expand regionally and nationally," said Marciniak. Many in the credit union industry view selective-surcharging as the best of both worlds in the realm of ATMs. Credit unions can generate fee income by feeing nonmembers and provide their own members with free ATM access. If a credit union on its own is providing selective surcharging it's not much help to their members because very few CUs charge their own members anyway, and the members are still only getting free access at their CU's own ATMs. But selective-surcharging alliances that band together many credit unions can bring some economies of scale to the table and give members more surcharge-free ATMs to choose from, said Sheryl White, assistant vice president of product support for Corporate One. White, who is responsible for handling the back-end work of bringing new participants into the network, said adding new CUs to the alliance is relatively easy. "For every credit union that signs up I give part of their BINs to the terminal drivers, whether it be a Fiserv, EDS or someone else, and they set it so the ATMs know which cardholders should be surcharged and those that shouldn't." There's a one-time $250 fee for CUs to join Alliance One and a $50 annual fee after that. "We don't dictate how credit unions handle surcharging of nonmembers. It's their own business decision, but we found many are surcharging nonmembers about $1.50," said White. Of course, the participating CUs in the Alliance do not surcharge any other CU participant's members. White said Alliance One now has penetration in 22 states and Germany, with Kentucky, West Virginia, Michigan, Ohio and Indiana having the most participating CUs. Alliance One has also just announced a new logo (see graphic) and is in the process of sending out logo artwork for its participating CUs to install on their ATMs. She said the former Alliance One logo was similar to Corporate One's logo, and the group wanted one identifiable logo that wouldn't cause confusion. Corporate One FCU has $2 billion in assets. -pgentile@cutimes.com