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

Members of the Filene Research Institute's i3 team, NACUSO, PSCU Financial Services and others met on Feb. 27 in Chicago to discuss how to bring the Flex.One account to credit unions in America. The member's entire loan is a line of credit, which allows the balance to be paid down when there is excess savings and withdrawn should those savings be needed. It also allows access via ATM, check writing, debit card, point of sale, ACH, and other features, which aim to make a separate checking account unneeded.

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

A pilot is in the works on implementing Flex.One at a number of credit unions. A March 20 meeting is scheduled to discuss this phase in more detail.