Lending Tools and Viewpointe today announced a collaboration to provide an innovative auto settlement solution to credit unions.

This offering is intended to fill a need created by last week’s news that NCUA had failed to find a buyer for major portions of U.S. Central and would be shutting down the failed corporate, said Lending Tools’ CEO Eric Goering, who added: “Auto settlement is what everybody in the industry had been worried about in a post US Central world. This announcement solves that problem.”

U.S. Central had provided corporate credit unions with four key payments services, Goering elaborated: bill payments (a function sold by the NCUA to CO -OP Financial Services); ACH; international transactions; and auto-settlement.

The presumption is that CO-OP will provide continuity with payments and other parties – notably Wichita, Kan.-based Lending Tools itself – already offer ACH and international to corporate credit unions and their members.

That left as the big question mark auto settlement. Now the Lending Tools-Viewpointe combine has stepped into that void, said Goering.

Glenn Wheeler, a senior executive at Viewpointe, a leader in bank infrastructure solutions, elaborated that the New York-based company already has relationships with many credit unions in regard to check imaging and extending the offering into auto settlement is a natural transition. “Ours is a system many credit unions are already familiar with,” he added.

“Our goal has been to offer corporates the convenience they enjoyed with U.S. Central,” said Goering. “The addition of auto settlement to Lending Tools’ offering means corporates will get one stop shopping with us,” he said.

“Lending Tools is a central repository for correspondent transactions such as ACH, wires, check and international payments. Viewpointe extends our ability to settle with all corporate and natural person credit unions nationally without the need to originate individual ACH or wire transactions for settlement,” added Mike Isaacs, president of Lending Tools.

Pricing, Goering suggested, would be in line with what corporates presently pay U.S Central. “The economics won’t change substantially.”

Goering elaborated that the Lending Tools plan is to test the offering in Q1/2012, with rollout expected to follow soon thereafter.

Earlier in December, Lending Tools had revealed that it had recently signed a “significant” number of corporates to “binding agreements.”

Today’s announcement of a deal with Viewpointe is in keeping with what appears to be Lending Tools’ ambition to pick up much of the corporate credit union business that had been serviced by US Central.

Instant Insights /

As U.S. Central Shutdown Looms, Lending Tools, Viewpointe Team Up To Offer Auto Settlement Solution

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