PASADENA, Calif. — Wescom Resources Group said the past year was its best yet, growing its client base to more than 225 credit unions and posting a 49% increase in revenue and a 29% increase in net income over the previous year.
Product highlights included 14 new users of the MembersEdge online banking platform, bringing the total number of credit union users to 47, with nine more scheduled for installation this year, WRG said.
Also, nine credit unions used WRG's new merger consulting team, according to the tech CUSO of $3.4 billion Wescom Credit Union. The company also said its bill pay processing volume grew by 34% in 2008 and that 12 more credit unions signed on for the Remote Deposit Services solution, bringing to 43 the number now using the online honor check deposit service that began as UPost when it was launched by the former eCU Technologies before that CUSO was bought by WRG.

Technicolor Commits to MVi Solutions

BURBANK, Calif. — Technicolor Federal Credit Union has committed to a Check 21 solution from Millennial Vision Inc., the company and credit union said.
The $38.9 million credit union also has implemented document imaging and capture systems and other remote delivery products from MVi, a Salt Lake City-based provider of Laserfiche products with a client list of 185 customers.
Eric Dosch, CEO of Technicolor FCU, said his credit union had been looking to update its technology and MVi was “seen as a keystone in this process.” The 6,600-member credit union (www.technicolorfcu.org) serves 65 companies in the motion picture and television production industry.

Record Sales at Share One

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Share One, a Memphis-based core processing CUSO, said it had record sales in 2008 and conversion dates stretching into 2009.
The company said it signed contracts with more than 20 credit unions in the year just ended and expanded its client list to 63, including the signing of the Service Center for Credit Unions.
The Philadelphia-area company provides financial and data services to a group of smaller credit unions and needed to find a new core processor after a bankruptcy of its current provider, Share One said.
The CUSO responded with the creation of NS Direct, a scaled-down version of its flagship NewSolutions platform.
“The Service Center supports 11 strong credit unions that successfully serve their niche markets. I am grateful that Share One stepped in to help us continue to serve our clients with the superior level of quality processing NS Direct provides,” said Joni Brown, president/owner of the Service Center for Credit Unions.
Half of the 20 conversions in 2009 will be to NS Direct and the rest to NewSolutions, Share One said.

Fiserv and PSCU Team Up to
Save Paper and Plant Trees

BROOKFIELD, Wis. — Fiserv Inc. is again partnering with its customers to plant trees for Arbor Day and to promote the benefits of going paperless.
This year, the big tech vendor is partnering with PSCU Financial Services to sponsor the planting of one tree in John M. Bethea State Forest near Glen St. Mary, Fla., for every new bill-pay subscriber at a credit union served by PSCU through Feb. 28.
The goal is to plant at least 7,000 trees this time around. So far, more than 80,000 trees have been planted by the Arbor Day Foundation through Fiserv's “Go Paperless, Go Green” campaign, the company said.
PSCU's PayLynx online bill pay platform is powered by CheckFree, a Fiserv subsidiary. PSCU will target credit union members during the campaign through an e-mail marketing campaign that encourages them to sign up for bill pay at their credit unions' Web site.
“Our campaign taps into the growing influence of environmental concerns on American consumer behavior,” said Leslie Reistrup, director of eServices at PSCU Financial Services.
“Our objective is to educate members of participating financial institutions about how they can make a difference by taking positive steps like signing up for e-bills and paying bills online,” Reistrup said.
“When we established our Go Paperless, Go Green Campaign in 2007, we wanted to help American consumers understand the positive impact they could have on the environment simply by adopting eco-friendly habits like receiving and paying bills online,” said Todd Lesher, division president of Fiserv Electronic Banking Services.
“The fact that consumer adoption of online bill pay and e-bills has significantly increased over the past two years shows that consumers are recognizing the convenience, organizational, environmental and money-saving benefits of using these online banking services,” Lesher said.
Fiserv has a Web site at www.eBILLPLACE.com that touts the environmental and financial benefits of online bill pay and e-bills, and also is a member of the PayItGreen Alliance (www.payitgreen.org), the environmental initiative of NACHA, the Electronic Payments Association.

Six CUs Sign With Online
Vendor in Final Quarter

CHAPIN, S.C. — Six credit unions signed up for a variety of online banking services from PM Systems in the fourth quarter of 2008, the company said.
They are the $649 million Point Breeze FCU of Hunt Valley, Md., the $261 million APL FCU of Laurel, Md., the $94 million K.C. Police CU of Kansas City, Mo., the $114 million San Jose CU of San Jose, Calif., the $482 million Amoco FCU of Texas City, Texas, and the $694 million Empower FCU of Syracuse, N.Y.
They contracted with the South Carolina-based company for a variety of services that includes mobile and internet banking, check imaging, multifactor authentication, bill presentment and pay, online account opening and remote deposit, the company said.
PM Systems (www.pmsyscorp.com) said it now provides online banking services to more than 60 credit unions and mobile banking to more than 20.

Louisiana CU Goes With
Mass. Service Bureau

BATON ROUGE, La. — Southern Teacher & Parents Federal Credit Union has gone live as a service bureau user of the XP2 platform with Credit Union On-Line Inc., Waltham, Mass.
The $32 million CU had been an in-house client of XP Systems, a Fiserv Inc. business unit. CUOL serves about 30 credit unions as the only data center provider of the XP2 platform, the company said.
The 9,200-member credit union's research included talking to neighboring L.E.S. FCU, a CUOL client that maintained operations during the week-long power loss that followed Hurricane Gustav this summer, the credit union said.
“After thorough evaluation, we determined that outsourcing our data processing to CUOL would allow ST&P FCU's staff to focus on our core business-servicing the credit union's members,” said Richard Turnley Jr., the credit union's president and CEO.
The new arrangement will allow ST&P FCU to automate back and front office operations and to soon offer online banking, the company and credit union said.

Passageways Hits Milestones

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Passageways LLC, a portal provider to financial institutions, said it added 40 new customers and six new staff members in 2008, and raised almost $15,000 for charity.
Launched in 2003 as a CUSO of Purdue Employees Federal Credit Union, the Purdue Research Park-based company said it also passed the 150-customer mark last year and that more than two-thirds of its customers bought either new modules or consulting projects in the past year.
Other highlights of the year past include moving into new office space, completing development of the next version of its flagship portal framework, which now is in beta testing at customer site, and launching four new modules for such varied uses as board collaboration, supply ordering and lobby management.
Hosted application clients, meanwhile, increased from three to 15 in the past year and Passageways formed a strategic alliance with CU*Answers as the portal platform provider to that core processor's 160 credit unions.
“Passageways experienced double digit growth in 2008, in spite of the soft market pointing to the value proposition we offer when it comes to collaboration, and we'll continue to strive for the same in 2009,” said Bill Connors, the company's CEO.
“Our goals for 2009 include reaching the 200-client milestone, but this year will truly be our year to produce solutions allowing collaboration in new ways,” said Connors.