XP Inks Deal with CUOL that Adds 24 CU Clients, and Opens Door to Service Bureau

MOORPARK, Calif. – Credit union data processor XP Systems hasn't been in the service bureau business for over 15 years, but it has climbed back into it with a deal with Massachusetts-based Credit Union On-Line (CUOL). CUOL is a CUSO owned by RTN Federal CU, Medical Area FCU, Unified FCU and CUOL CEO Connie Borretti. For years its 24 credit unions (and four gas companies) have been on an online system from FiTECH, but decided to move processors due in part to FiTECH being sold twice in the last few years. FiTECH went to Liberty and then to Open Solutions Inc. XP has been overhauling its core system over the last few years to what is now XP2, an in-house system. CUOL will be the first major implementation of XP2 in a service bureau environment. CUOL has done this before. It moved off of an NCR system and on to FiTECH. “We know how to do this. When we went from NCR to FiTECH we ran two mainframes side by side. We did 17 conversions in 15 months. All the mistakes we made the last time, we learned from,” said Boretti. XP Systems President John Edwards said XP has been seeing increased interest from its clients – especially larger CUs – about having a service bureau option. Edwards said as XP debated about whether to do it on its own, CUOL presented an excellent opportunity because it has vast service bureau experience, which he admitted XP does not any more given its exodus from that business. Edwards said XP still isn't sure whether it wants to be the one offering the service bureau environment, but in order to meet demand partnering with groups like CUOL to offer it is a way to satisfy customers. Portland Teachers CU was actually running XP in service bureau mode for Hacienda Community FCU, which has now since been merged away.