NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. – NACUSO is in the process of laying the foundation to publish a CUSO Peer-to-Peer analysis that would provide credit unions with a tool to compare their CUSO operations with similar types. NACUSO Director Tom Davis, president of Davis & Company, a management consulting firm that specializes in project management and strategic planning development services for CUSOs and credit unions said unlike credit unions' required 5300 call reports, "there is no systematically development database for the gathering and publishing of information on CUSOs, no central source or repository for information on CUSOs except what credit unions are required to provide in their call reports, and that's just summary information." NACUSO, said Davis, took steps in publishing its CUSO directory, to provide information on which CUSO's doing what. The directory serves as a reference guide and is a good first step, he said. "But CUSOs are involved in so many activities, besides financial services and mortgage services. They're also involved with things like shared branching and trust services. CUSOs need a database so they're able to identify best practices in each primary CUSO activity and see how they're doing in terms of performance with those CUSOs that are involved with similar activities," said Davis. He added that comparisons wouldn't just include revenue, but also things like Return on Assets, and percent of members using the CUSO service. So far, Davis said NACUSO has designed the objectives of the analysis, and now the association has to concur on the best way to collect the data. NACUSO will probably contract the work with an outside supplier, he said. Davis described the CUSO peer-to-peer analysis as "a work in progress," and he added that NACUSO "hopes to have a leg up on the project sometime in 2004."