RICHARDSON, Texas – Texans Credit Union is continuing to buildon the success of its business lending program. The $1.5 billioncredit union, which launched its highly-successful TexansCommercial Capital in May 2004, has launched a new CUSO, CUCommercial Services, LLC. The new venture will offer an outsourcedloan participation program to the credit union community. CUCommercial Services will help credit unions purchase and servicemember business loan participations and provide “a manageable andcost-effective way for them to take part in the member businessloan market.” “Credit unions are under increasing pressure tomaintain net interest margins and profitability while lendingopportunities dwindle,” said David Radman, president/CEO of CUCommercial Services. “As a result, many credit unions are lookingto member business loans to add yield with acceptable risk.”Through the new venture, Radman said credit unions will have accessto the ability to offer “highly diverse portfolios of high-yield,low-risk mortgage assets without having the in-house expertise (andfixed costs) required to originate and service their ownportfolios.” CU Commercial Services will assist credit unions,mostly those with less than $1 billion in assets, in a variety ofways with loan participations. The CUSO will formulate loanparticipation strategies, including determining target portfoliosize as well as guidelines for proper diversification within thatportfolio and perform necessary diligence to insure that purchasedparticipations meet all necessary requirements. Credit unionclients can also expect “state-of-the-art systems” for servicingpurchased participations, collecting and remitting principal andinterest payments and providing comprehensive “see-through”reporting that can be easily integrated with clients' accountingsystems. Radman has been with the organization since its inceptionin July 2005 and officially oversees all aspects of its operation.In addition, Radman serves on the board of managers of TexansCommercial Capital. Prior to C.U. Commercial Services, he was afounding organizer of the Lonestar CAPCO Fund, LLC, a Texas CAPCOfund, and the U.S. Investment Director for Strathdon Investments,PLC, a venture capital fund listed on the London Stock Exchange.Radman's background also includes extensive experience with publicand private investment firms and financial institutions with aparticular emphasis on commercial real estate and real estatelending. Besides Radman, the CUSO has two other professionals onstaff with a combined 60 years of commercial lending experience, hesaid. Just as important as having the expertise is having the righttechnology. Over the past few months, the CUSO has been putting inplace the systems that will streamline the loan participationprocess. Meanwhile, word of mouth is certainly spreading about CUCommercial Services. Even though no formal marketing campaign hasbeen launched, Radman is already getting calls from credit unionsin part due to its connection with Texans Commercial Capital, whichhas closed 530 loans with $365 million in outstanding loanbalances. In January, it funded the sale of ALM First FinancialAdvisors, LLC from its parent, Eastern Corporate Federal CreditUnion (EasCorp). Dallas-based ALM First is an investment advisoryfirm that provides service to nearly 100 credit unions. At presstime, Radman had several meetings scheduled with CU representativesto talk about the newest CUSO. The next step is completing somehousekeeping items, Radman said. Further down the road isconsidering setting up a fund similar to what CUNA Mutual Group iscurrently doing. In March, CUNA Mutual launched CU Systems Fund, aninvestment fund that would allow for the purchase of business loansfrom credit unions and the sale of shares in them to interestedcredit unions. Texans Commercial Capital is one of the entitiesthat has sold loans to the new fund. For now, Radman said with thegrowing interest in commercial loans from credit unions it hasbecome “difficult to compete with limited investment opportunitiesunder the regulation.” “There is a need to do this and we want tobe able to provide another value-added service,” Radman said. -

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