SAN DIMAS, Calif. – WesCorp is beefing up its item processing business in Washington State. The $24 billion corporate announced on deadline that it is acquiring the assets and business from Credit Union Support Services, a Spokane-based CUSO owned by six Spokane area credit unions, including Spokane Teachers CU, Global CU, Spokane FCU, Spokane Postal FCU, United Health Service FCU, and Numerica CU. The CUSO currently has 16 credit union item processing clients and one bank, which bring in about 2.4 million items a month for the CUSO. The CUSO, now with 18 employees, was formed in 1989 with three credit unions and just a Unisys sorter. It appears that keeping up with Check 21 innovations spurred this deal. "As a veteran processor, WesCorp has already proven adept in applying the benefits of Check 21 to image settlement. Rather than investing in costly new equipment, we decided to sell the business to WesCorp and take full advantage of their expertise in share draft processing and check image exchange," said Steve Dahlstrom, CEO of Spokane Teachers Credit Union and the chairman of Credit Union Support Services. Dahlstrom said the CUSO wanted a credit union player, not an entity outside the industry, to take over the business. WesCorp has had Washington CUs as members for over 20 years as it was one of the nine states in its original FOM. After the merger between Washington Corporate and Oregon-based Northwest Corporate a few years ago WesCorp started really expanding item processing to Washington CUs. It currently has an 11,000 square-foot facility just outside of Seattle, where it processes 8.3 million items a month. "When Check 21 rolls out in October, the credit unions that rely on us for their share draft settlement and check imaging will be ahead of the competition and their members will notice the difference. We're delighted with this announcement because it will enable these Spokane-area credit unions to maintain their competitive advantage," said Steve Shrader, WesCorp's Regional Manager in Washington State. -

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