SAN DIMAS, Calif. — The Financial Service Centers Cooperative expects to award $2 million in dividends to its members for transactions concluded in 2006, the network said.

The dividend will represent a 12% increase over 2005 and will come after the network's annual audit in April. The dividend is paid to network member credit unions for transactions acquired at their branches.

The dividend comes on top of $400,000 distributed to credit unions in December 2006, which was the final cash payout of dividends from 2002.

The network processed 45 million transactions in 2006, FSCC said, with deposits of over $5 billion, withdrawals of over $1 billon, credit advances of over $18 million and payments of $255 million.

“There is no shared branching without credit unions willing to share their branches, so we are deeply grateful to our acquirers for this level of cooperation,” states Sarah Canepa Bang, CEO of FSCC. “At the same time, we continue to invest resources toward even further expansion of the network including kiosks, our call center and more–this benefits all issuers and acquirers.”

In November 2006, the FSCC Board of Directors approved the 2007 Patronage Dividend strategy, which will again be based on acquired transactions.

FSCC has been able to return sizeable Patronage Dividends year after year, with some credit unions receiving annual dividends in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, the network said.

Currently, FSCC is working with the 7-Eleven convenience store chain to expand shared branching services through select 7-Eleven stores, allowing members to access their credit union accounts at over 2,000 additional locations across the country, the network added.