DALLAS — In a move that aims to further reach the growing number of member-owned small businesses in Texas, Credit Union Resources, Inc., an affiliate of the Texas Credit Union League, has purchased an interest in the Texas Business Lenders Group, a credit union-owned business lending CUSO.
Credit Union Resources purchased 25% of the board seat representation, according to Rick Grady, TCUL vice president, marketing and public relations.
The partnership now enables all Texas credit unions to have the capability to serve their members' needs for commercial loan services without having to add staff and expertise, according to both groups. Housed under the Credit Union Resources' umbrella are an array of products and services including loans, technology solutions, compliance audits and staffing and operational support.
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The Fort Worth, Texas-based TBLG offers loans for real estate, construction, equipment, inventory, business vehicles, and lines of credit. In February, the CUSO partnered with Cypress Software Systems LP's BizMark platform to automate the small business loan application processes. Formed in August 2005, TBLG is owned by Community Resource CU, Dallas Telco FCU, EECU, First Community CU, Firstmark CU and United Heritage CU and has since expanded into Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kansas.
"This is a huge benefit to credit unions," said Dick Ensweiler, president/CEO of Credit Union Resources and the Texas Credit Union League. "There are over 750 thousand small businesses in Texas, many of them owned by credit union members. These are not major corporations. They are 'mom and pop' stores, landscaping businesses, moving companies, real estate agencies, contract programmers, and other firms that may be sole proprietors, or employ two to three other people. Credit unions once again are coming to their member's aid and helping them capture the American dream."
A large percentage of people are employed by small businesses, many of them sole proprietors, said Mark O'Bryan, senior vice president and chief business initiatives officer at Credit Union Resources. In Texas, small businesses employ nearly three million people, some of who are credit union members, as compared to four million for medium-sized businesses, and four million for large corporations, he added.
"This is where credit unions make a difference with the personal touch," O'Bryan said.
Because many of these businesses are not typical business borrowers, other financial institutions have all but abandoned them, the league has found. Some survive by a member's paycheck, while others survive by revolving credit card debt or sources of capital.
Credit Union Resources has certainly used several methods to gauge what services credit unions are apt to seek out. In 2005, the company surveyed more than 150 credit union CEOs in Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma to learn more about outsourcing certain functions such as such as human resources, internal audit, policy writing and updating, newsletters and marketing, and collections/disposal of repossessed property. The CEOs said tasks most likely to be outsourced were real estate negotiation, professional employee organization and facility location consulting along with ATM safety evaluations, loan participations and general consulting services.
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