Somebody is winning. Somebody is losing. Just don’texpect an easy to decipher who will win the battle in this updateon the credit union core systems war.

On one side there is Mark Sievewright, president of the creditunion division at Brookfield, Wis.-based Fiserv, and his mantra isthat it’s not over until it’s over. And Fiserv, he insisted, hasreally just begun to reap the gains from its January billion-dollaracquisition of Open Solutions and its DNA core. Sievewrightcomes into the war with a giant lead.

“We have one-third of the credit union core processing business,and we enjoy a retention rate that is at or near 99%t,” saidSievewright. That means that for every 100 cores that reach the endof their contract (typically a five to ten year term), Fiserv keepsall but one in the fold, by Sievewright’s count.

On the other side there is Ted Bilke, president of Monett, Mo.-based Symitar, a division ofJack Henry. He is the aggressive No. 2 who, in the tradition,claims to try harder. Listen to Bilke and he exudes confidence. “Wecontinue to do very well. We are trending up in the number ofcustomers. We have new competitive takeaways. We are clearly on anuptick.”

Core system processing is not a field characterizedby enormous change. By Bilke’s count, year in, year out, 23 to 36credit unions will change their core providers. “This year, it willbe at the high end,” predicted Bilke. And the process is lengthy.From start to finish, picking a new core may take a year, saidseveral consultants.

That is despite the fact that, nowadays, there are essentiallyonly two core system providers, Symitar and Fiserv, when it comesto larger credit unions of $250 million in assets and bigger.

The actual numbers tell that story. Data provided by Callahan& Associates as to the core systems in credit unions withassets above $250 million underline the enormity of the Fiservlead. Of 766 credit unions in that group, Fiserv provides coreprocessing to nearly half, 357. That number includes 64 using OpenSolutions’ DNA.

Symitar (with Episys) comes in second at 257 credit unions.

No one else moves the needle.

Harland Financial, which declined to comment for this article,has 67 core processing contracts. That places it third.

FIS,which also declined to comment, has 22 among those larger creditunions. That is good for fourth.

Thus Bilke’s assertion that most big credit unions that are inthe hunt for core conversion quickly narrow the search to twoplayers. For many institutions there is no third choice.

Who is winning that mano a mano?

Survey industry experts and the clear impression among them isthat Symitar is winning the bulk of its face-offs with Fiserv.“Symitar has the momentum, especially in the larger credit unionspace,” said Brad Smith, president at Abound Resources, a creditunion consulting firm in Austin, Tex.

“Symitar is on the winning side. They are converting clients offFiserv cores,” said Kirk Drake, CEO of Ongoing Operations, aMaryland based technology focused CUSO.

“Symitar is winning a lot of deals right now, that’s for sure,”said Scott Hodgins, a research director with Cornerstone Advisors inScottsdale, Ariz. “It has a lot of installs. so it has goodcredibility. It also has a very strong service reputation.”

“Symitar is doing better in the larger credit union marketbecause it is very open to customization,” said a senior executivewith a small core system provider who requested anonymity becausehe is not authorized to comment on competitors. “The Symitar corecan accept non-Symitar products and, with the right programming, itwill do what a large credit union wants. It’s a different businessmodel from Fiserv.”

Fiserv, said several experts, likes to sell a one stop solution,and the good news is that included with a Fiserv core deal usuallyare payments, online banking, mobile banking, probably P2P paymentsand still more as the company strives to deliver all the computinga financial institution needs to provide member facingservices.

Symitar, by contrast, focuses more on providing just the core,but the upside is that it is fairly easy to integrate into it mostleading add-ons that the typical credit union would look at it.

That flexible Symitar platform is winning many second looks,especially from the bigger credit unions that have the in housestaff needed to personalize the system.

A search in the Credit Union Times archives underlinesthe string of Symitar wins, such as Kitsap Credit Union in Bremerton, Wash., which recentlyannounced conversion off a Fiserv core and Coastal Credit Union inRaleigh, N.C., which also announced conversion off a Fiservcore.

But before crowning Symitar the new champion, recognize thatSievewright at Fiserv has a very different perspective. In aninterview, he claimed that Fiserv too has been notching winsalthough it does not always announce them with a press release,said Sievewright.

A search in the Credit Union Times archivesfound a number of Fiserv wins, such as the Wauna Federal Credit Union in Oregon, which signed up for theOpen Solutions CUunify core, representing the first announcedFiserv win involving OSI assets since the acquisition.

Fiserv also recently claimed two wins for its XP2 core, the $314 million Greater Iowa Credit Union in Amesand the $288 million E Federal Credit Union in Baton Rouge, La.

But where are the wins for DNA, the showpiece in the OSIacquisition, and what has become of the handful of credit unionsthat had announced they would adopt Acumen, the now abandoned Fiserv core?

Asked about that, Sievewright said, “It’s been a maelstrom ofactivity.” He elaborated that in the first 90 days following theacquisition his primary focus had been integrating OSI’s cores intothe Fiserv mix and, by extension, integrating Fiserv’s add-ons intothe OSI cores. “It’s been tremendously energizing, bringing the twobusinesses together. A tremendous amount of integration hasoccurred. We have been making solid progress.”

“Our pipeline is strong. You will be seeing DNA announcements,”he added.

Consultants said that probably, too, Sievewright and his teamwere laboring to keep present DNA clients happy and satisfied. Thatshould not be that much of a challenge because reports had beenswirling that cash poor OSI had been trimming service in the monthsleading up to the acquisition. Fiserv, with its deeper pockets anda reputation for providing needed service, probably has remediedthose ills, said experts.

Either way, “there are questions that need to be answered beforelarge credit unions sign onto the Fiserv cores,” said Hodgins.

And just maybe Sievewright’s group has been cobbling togetheranswers that will satisfy the doubters. At least he expressesstrong confidence. “It’s not hard, getting people to see the valueof DNA. Things are going very well for us. We really have made alot of progress.”

Time will tell on that as industry experts settle in to watchhow many DNA adoptions there are, how soon.

This war is nowhere near over.