SHREWSBURY, N.J. — Last month's merger announcement of Southwest Corporate and Northwest Corporate and yesterday's announcement of a potential WesCorp/SunCorp merger have corporate credit union leaders talking about the future of the network.

While merging corporates have cited economies of scale and future viability as reasons for merging, some corporate leaders don't believe economies of scale are a major factor for the future, especially given U.S. Central's presence as an aggregator.

"I really believe the future of corporates is found in innovation, not in consolidation. There are lots of folks at least the size of SunCorp that do some amazing things," said Lee Butke, CEO of Corporate One. He cited Mid-Atlantic's bill pay program, Constitution Corporate's Web design/hosting CUSO, and Northwest Corporate's creation of a business services CUSO as solid examples of how corporates have innovated. He said the future of corporates will be about more than just investments, but helping CUs succeed. He noted that Corporate One's new enterprise risk management system is another corporate attempt to meet a need.