New CUSO to Focus on Call Centers, Shared Branching, and Others

KENTWOOD, Mich. - A new CUSO that will focus on creating financial, managerial and financial solutions for its networked credit unions has been created in western Michigan, and its board and first president have been named. Scott Collins, a veteran of IBM AS/400 sales and management, is the president of Xtend Inc., which includes 20 initial stockholders. The board includes executives of eight credit unions in Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana and New York as well as the president of CU*Answers (formerly WESCO), itself a Kentwood-based CUSO and core processor. According to a news release from CU*Answers, the new CUSO will act as a focal point for developing, acquiring, and/or delivering products and services for its members by leveraging the cooperative size and resources of its members. The news release said Collins will be responsible for building focus teams to plan projects that will initially include a call/contact center initiative, a shared branching and check-cashing outlets task force, and an insurance pass-through product group. The nine board members of Xtend Inc. are: *Dawn Briegel of Ottawa School Employees CU, Grand Haven, Mich. - chair. *John Thornton of GR Federal Employees CU, Grand Rapids, Mich. - vice chair. *Glenn Kretchmer of ATL CU, Grand Rapids, Mich. - secretary/treasurer. *Ronald Budzinski of La-Porter Federal CU, Michigan City, Ind. - director. *Steven Goldberger of IBM Metro Employees Federal CU, Long Island, N.Y. - director. *David Keim of Western Districts Members CU, Grand Rapids, Mich. - director. *Raymond Ward of Kent County Employees CU, Grand Rapids, Mich. - director. *Chris Butler of Community CU, La Crosse, Wis. - director. *Randy Karnes of CU*Answers, Kentwood, Wis. - director.