Regulatory compliance, invoicing and other areas that may havebeen under the priority radar a few years ago, have aggressivelycome to the forefront at many credit unions.

Keeping up with the treadmill of regulations led to the creationof several CUSOs in 2012 to help credit unions that didn't have thefinancial and staffing resources to remain compliant. With nolet-up in sight, the industry could seem more launches of CUSOstargeting compliance in 2013.

The same may be true for services that help small businessesmanage cash flow such as invoicing arrangements. Existing CUSOs mayalso offer an extended line of business services that includesmobile banking and marketing tailored around social media.

Disaster recovery CUSOs can expect to see a growth in clientsbased on what is predicted to be an active hurricane season in2013.

Meanwhile, it remains to be seen whether the NCUA'scontroversial CUSO rule amendment will ever move forward. InSeptember, NCUA Chairman Debbie Matz said the issue has beenshelved for now.

The NCUA had proposed a rule that would require all CUSOs tofile financial reports directly with NCUA and the appropriate statesupervisory authority. The regulator also proposed makingadditional parts of the CUSO rule applicable to federally insuredstate-chartered credit unions as well as federal credit unions.

The NCUA Board said it was also concerned thatless-than-adequately capitalized federally insured state creditunions posed serious risk to their members and the NCUSIF wheninvesting money into failing CUSOs. To address the concern, theregulator proposed limiting these FISCUs' aggregate cash outlays toa CUSO, consistent with state laws.