CO-OP Financial Services has announced its long awaited entry into the market for credit card processing services.
The new program, which CO-OP has dubbed the CO-OP Credit Pass-Through Processing, will be available to credit unions in January 2011, CO-OP said.
"We're currently in beta-testing with several credit unions and haven't had any lack of credit unions who have raised their hands and said they would be interested in the service," said Caroline Lane, senior vice president for business development for the processing CUSO.
Lane said that currently roughly 1100 credit unions nationwide use CO-OP for some aspect of their card processing, whether ATM processing, debit transactions that authenticate with personal identification numbers or other services. The CUSO considers these CUs the obvious first candidates for the service, drawn by the opportunity to have one source for all their processing services.
"Credit unions are serious about finding ways to continue providing outstanding, customized service to their members while reducing their operating expenses," said CO-OP CEO Stan Hollen. "We're equally serious about helping them accomplish this. By adding credit card processing to our business lines - tailored exclusively for credit unions - we become a single point of contact for debit and credit processing, surcharge-free ATM network and shared branching."
