CO-OP Financial Services has acquired the Des Moines, Iowa-based payments processor TMG in a $100 million all-cash deal and has restructured its management team, according to an announcement today.

The Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.-based CUSO has been a minority owner in TMG for some time but said Monday that it has purchased all the remaining shares of TMG from the Iowa Credit Union League. TMG serves approximately 400 credit unions and processes transactions for about six million cardholders across the U.S. and Canada. CO-OP Financial Services has $376 million in assets and serves about 3,500 credit unions, as well as about 60 million consumer account holders.

The deal brings the business to nearly $500 million in combined revenues, CO-OP President/CEO Todd Clark told CU Times.

“The combined forces of TMG and CO-OP provide credit unions with a single point of entry to the most innovative, tailored, cost-effective products and services as they prepare for a rapidly transforming payments landscape,” Clark said in the announcement. “We will offer the market greater integration of the two company's product lines and a simplified, predictive client experience. We will also leverage artificial intelligence, custom business intelligence, consultation and deeper security offerings that marry machine learning and human analysis to perfect authentication, reporting and anticipation of fraud.”

Clark, who became the CEO of CO-OP last June, said the deal represents a major operational pivot for the CUSO.

“We've been talking now for about nine months about being more seamless and more secure. Obviously, everything we're doing here makes us a whole lot more seamless,” Clark said. “We think about the back-office operations at our credit unions and how using two different systems right now is inconvenient to manage their card bases, and as we bring these things together, it'll all be under one system and one set of data.”

CO-OP first partnered with TMG about five years ago, Clark said. He said about 60% of TMG credit unions are already part of CO-OP.

“It's not so much about net new credit unions as much as it's about integration of services and performing for the credit unions in a better way. Today, if you get your ATMs from CO-OP and you do your credit with TMG, it's two different relationship managers, two different salespeople. Going forward, it'll be a unified product,” he added.

Shazia Manus, who is the CEO of TMG, will become CO-OP's chief product and strategy officer, according to the announcement.

CO-OP said several other executive positions have shifted as well:

Jim Hanisch, formerly EVP, network operations and corporate development, has been appointed COO.
Kari Wilfong, formerly CFO/EVP, has been elevated to CFO/chief administrative officer.
Mathew Kardell, previously with First Data, joins the company as chief revenue officer.
Nick Calcanes, previously with Fiserv, will become chief information officer.
Samantha Paxson, formerly chief marketing officer, has become chief experience and marketing officer.
Jill DeNiro, formerly EVP of human resources, is now chief people officer.
Paul Love, previously with the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, is now chief information security officer.

“All TMG employees will continue their employment in their existing roles. The Des Moines operation continues and for the most part it is as of now business as usual,” Manus said. “Obviously as we look to integrate into the broader organization and look to really come up with new strategies, we'll look to leverage them as appropriately so the team continues as it is. They're very, very excited to become part of the broader CO-OP ecosystem.”

Clark said CO-OP will roll out most of the integration dates at its THINK conference in May.

“I would expect to see, within the next 60 or so days, start to see us face the market in a slightly different way,” he said.

Instant Insights /

CO-OP Financial Services Acquires TMG

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