PORTLAND, Ore. – CU Business Group recently celebrated another milestone when it signed on its 100th credit union client. The corporate credit union-owned CUSO provides business lending, deposit and consulting services to 109 credit unions in 23 states. It just signed its latest partnership with $1.1 billion Redwood Credit Union of Santa Rosa, Calif. "One hundred credit unions is a significant milestone for us," said Larry Middleman, CU Business Group's president/CEO. "We started the CUSO just over two years ago with three employees, three laptops, and a zeal to assist credit unions with their members' business needs. To reach this level of credit union partnerships in such a short time has far exceeded our expectations." CU Business Group reached another milestone in late 2004 when it went over the $200 million mark in loan packages received. About half of these loans are commercial real estate, which tend to be larger dollars, according to the CUSO. The other half are classic small business loans such as lines of credit for working capital and term loans for equipment. He also noted that credit unions are seeing a wide variety of member loan requests, from the $10,000 line to the $2 million commercial facility. Middleman said the CUSO has signed on 12 credit unions over the last three weeks. "From my view in the industry, offering business services is not really optional anymore – the bar has been raised and credit unions are increasingly being expected to offer some support for their members' businesses," he said.