MADISON, Wis. -- Popular in Scotland, Australia and Canada, aninnovative, account that pools all of a member's accounts includingsavings, loans, mortgage, checking and credit cards into oneaccount, has moved one step closer to implementation by creditunions in the United States.

Members of the Filene Research Institute's i3 team, NACUSO, PSCUFinancial Services and others met on Feb. 27 in Chicago to discusshow to bring the Flex.One account to credit unions in America. Themember's entire loan is a line of credit, which allows the balanceto be paid down when there is excess savings and withdrawn shouldthose savings be needed. It also allows access via ATM, checkwriting, debit card, point of sale, ACH, and other features, whichaim to make a separate checking account unneeded.

"It was a great opportunity for Filene and NACUSO...it wascollaboration at work," said Denise Gabel, chief innovation officerat Filene. "We're talking about a 2005 idea that was incubated inFilene i3 and how we could work together to bring it to life and tohouseholds across the United States."