SARASOTA, Fla. -- Lynne Truschel used a bit of shoe leather andsome high-tech help from her friends as her credit union launchedits part in the effort to wean folks off payday lenders inSarasota.

Truschel is executive vice president at $238 million SarasotaCoastal CU, which has just become the first user of the iAdvanceshort-term lending solution from its longtime core processor,Galaxy Plus Credit Union Systems.

iAdvance is a turnkey software system that lets a credit unionset loan amounts, lending and savings criteria and fees toencourage members to use it instead of payday lenders that havebecome ubiquitous in so many communities across the country,including Sarasota.

"We really want to put them out of business. We really believethey are predatory," Truschel says. "We really believe there is abetter way, and as a trusted financial adviser in our community, wethink our credit union can provide that."

The advising piece is where the shoe leather analogy comes in.Truschel says she "put on my dark sunglasses" and went into a localpayday lending office to procure a loan. She says what struck herabout it was the staff's efficiency and attitude.

"There were no lectures, no one tried to give me advice. I justgot my loan and left," she says.

Training her own staff to do the same will be a trick to makingit work at Sarasota Coastal, Truschel says.

"Our people are fixers. They have a tendency to want to offeradvice, to try to help you and get you on a safer path," she says."At the other place they didn't criticize or condemn, they justtook care of business. We'll be working with our people to get themto understand that this needs to be handled as just anotherproduct."

Sarasota Coastal also has an unusual teller system that willlend itself to such a system. Members entering the five branchesare directed to stations where they then get on the phone witheither a sales or service representative at the call center.

The short-term lending program is still unfolding, Truschelsays, but right now the intent is for 30-day loans at a maximum of$500 with a $15 application fee and a goal of 12% interest.Borrowers must be 21 or older, a member for at least 60 days, andhave a checking account and the same employer for the past sixmonths.

And they can't be rolled over without limit, one way paydaylenders use to trap borrowers in a downward spiral of debt. "We'reworking hard to be helpful, not predatory," Truschel says."There'll be limits that the payday lenders don't have and, whenthe time's right, help we can offer that they wouldn't."

Truschel says Sarasota Coastal expects to eventually offer theautomated lending system over the Internet, and Roxanne Goins, vicepresident of business development for Galaxy, says it was, indeed,developed behind the security wall of her Fiserv unit's homebanking product.

It also was developed specifically for Sarasota Coastal afterGalaxy found a credit union willing to be the beta while thesolution was prepared for the broader market.

"We don't see it as a big money maker for Galaxy, just likeLynne doesn't see it as a big money maker for her credit union,"Goins says.

"We see it as a way to use our services to help credit unionsbring the underserved and unbanked back into mainstream lending,"the Galaxy executive says.

Goins says iAdvance can be sold to any credit union that wantsit, not just Galaxy or other Fiserv clients. She says it'scurrently deployed only at Sarasota Coastal but that she has seeninterest growing in it as the National Credit Union Foundation'sReal Solutions program takes hold, and expects to see more afterSarasota Coastal gets some experience with it as the firstdeployment.

Real Solutions has the goal of helping more than 2,000 creditunions in 33 states offer new products and services to attract morethan 250,000 members in untapped and underserved markets.

Truschel says she attended a meeting the NCUF held in Tampa andthat of the 30 credit unions represented, 10 signed up immediatelyfor the Real Solutions programs. It's also expected to be a hottopic at the next Galaxy users meeting.

Such programs, including iAdvance, "are really opening our eyesphilosophically and really helping us get back to our roots, towhat credit unions are supposed to be all about," she says.

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