Call it a sign of the times. A Utah-based CUSO has partneredwith a firm that specializes in real estate owned by financialinstitutions to offer services to other credit unions.

Mountain America Financial Services is a wholly owned subsidiaryof Mountain America Credit Union, a federal credit union based inSouth Jordan, Utah, with $2.9 billion in assets and roughly 354,000members.

Under the partnership, MAFS will offer Green River Capitalthrough its CU Sources gateway where it already offers some REOmanagement services, according to the CUSO's website.

The partnership will enable participating credit union to bothmanage and move real estate off their books in a more efficientmanner, the CUSO said, through Green River's REOConnex platformthat offers “real time” reporting, valuation, offer acceptance andexpense tracking.

“Financial institutions are experiencing a large volume ofproperties that are foreclosing and they don't have the time orresources to properly manage them,” said Gene Erickson, chiefoperating officer of MAFS.

“This new partnership allows us to take the hassle out of theprocess and allows institutions to effectively and efficiently movetheir REO assets off of their books,” Erickson said.

“By joining Mountain America and CU Sources we are able toprovide the technology and experience to help credit unionseffectively manage their growing volumes of REO assets and focus onproviding exceptional member service,” said Brent Taggart, seniorvice president of Business Development and Client Relations forGreen River.

Credit unions have largely not been impacted too greatly bylarge numbers of foreclosures that wind up in REO, according toindustry experts, but credit unions in severely impacted states arecarrying a relatively large number of properties on their books andhave embarkedon innovative programs to move them off their books.