When Mid-Atlantic Corporate Federal Credit Union conducted asurvey in early 2013 among its credit union partners to find outwhere their most pressing concerns were, compliance and securitytopped the list.

The feedback was the first driver of the debut of a new CUSOthat would provide risk management products and services, said JayMurray, president/CEO of the $2.44 billon corporate in Middletown,Pa.

Sollievo, which revealed its revamped unveiling in February,will offer enterprise risk monitoring including vendor management,audit and exam findings manager and an allowance, loan, lease, lossmodule. The CUSO's offerings will also include information securityservices such as information security risk assessments, incidentresponse planning and network security services. In addition, theCUSO will assist credit unions with business continuity plansand training and consulting services.

Lori Gall will head Sollievo as its president/CEO. The 27-yearcredit union industry veteran will continue in her roles as seniorvice president of administration, compliance officer and securityofficer at Mid-Atlantic Corporate.

“Sollievo is an Italian word that means ‘relief,’” said Gall.“We hear from credit unions every day about their struggle to keepup with regulatory demands. Our mission is to provide peace of mindand help them meet compliance obligations and improve the overallrisk posture of their credit union.”

The CUSO is actually a reincarnated model that was initiallylaunched in 2008 to offer benefit and insurance services, said Gall. However, when thecorporate credit union crisis hit, the model wasn't strong enoughto sustain itself, she added. The good news was the initialinvestment by Mid-Atlantic, Sollievo's owner, into getting therevamped entity up and running, the brand and trademark was alreadycompleted.

“The model itself is different. We’re taking an existing coststructure and moving it into the CUSO model,” Murray explained.“Mid-Atlantic is already funding the cost of the people. We gave itenough capital that it had all it needed for day to dayoperations.”

Gall said there is a need to partner with strong solutionproviders. On April 1, Sollievo did just that when it linked upwith Philadelphia-based Strohl Risk Solutions, formerly FICompliance Solutions, a provider of risk management services forfinancial institutions. The agreement allows Sollievo to offer thecompany's ERM 365 software to its credit union clients.

ERM 365 is a web-based risk management application that allowsinstitutions to monitor risk through interactive dashboards, emailalerts and notifications, according to Mid-Atlantic. The modulesincluded in the ERM software include those to manage exam and auditfindings, perform and document allowance for loan and lease lossescomputations, keep up-to-date with regulatory changes and trackvendor requirements including risk ratings, contracts, expirationdates, incident reports, request for proposals, and vendor duediligence.

Sollievo will start out serving credit unions in theMid-Atlantic region states of Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, NewJersey, Virginia and the District of Columbia, said Gall. Thecorporate counts more than 800 credit unions as well as CUSOs and leagues as its clients. Murray said Gall was theideal candidate to lead Sollievo given her 27 years of extensivecompliance experience at Mid-Atlantic. She has also served as thecorporate's liaison to the NCUA, auditors and other examiners, henoted. Gall said she doesn't think it will be more difficult tojuggle her multiples roles but rather, a unique transition.

“We’re looking at using a lot of the relationships built overthe years,” said Gall. “The group that we have (at Sollievo) hasreported to me for years.”

Including Gall, Sollievo employs five staffers who have nearly90 years of combined credit union experience, as well industrycertifications such as certified information security professional,enterprise risk management expert and business continuityprofessional.

Over the next couple of months, Sollievo is set to announceother partnerships and for the rest of 2014, the CUSO is alsoexploring a fraud management system and bond, insurance and riskassessment services, said Gall. At the end of April, Sollievo willdebut its Take Two videos on its website. The two-minute sessionswill focus on risk management. Weekly articles will also beposted.

Feedback from Mid-Atlantic's clients has helped the corporate tomeet their needs. Murray went back to October 2010 when a groupgathered for the Rekindling of the Cooperative Spirit meeting. Thegoal was to bring credit unions together that trust each other,find common ground and collaborate, he recalled. That inauguralassembly led to the Rekindle groups that currently meet severaltimes a year. Murray had just attended one in Philadelphia.

“We’re trying to find things that work. We call this the‘Rekindle’ movement. It's about trusting each other andcollaborating, especially among the small and midsize creditunions.”