SAN DIMAS, Calif. — The Financial Service Centers Cooperative,the shared branching network headquartered on the West Coast, hasimplemented the Emergency Shared Branching program which allowscredit unions which are not using shared branching to sign up togive their members access to their accounts during theemergency.

FSCC said the ESB program was developed during the floods inLouisiana two years ago. FSCC is waiving the set up charge for theprogram. As long as the credit unions agree to the terms of itsuse, FSCC is not requiring credit unions to sign on to full-blownshared branching.

“Our goal is to help credit unions get through this devastatingdisaster, not to sign on new customers,” says Sarah Canepa Bang,FSCC CEO. “With reports of between 500,000 and a million peopledisplaced, we're trying to think of the members first. If we canhelp credit unions help them, then we're doing our job.