ARLINGTON, Va.-Keith Nolan, president of NAFCU Services Corporation, will be leaving his current post to join Prime Alliance Solutions, Inc. and even earlier than initially expected.

Though Nolan had initially given NSC-a wholly owned NAFCU subsidiary providing partnership opportunities for members and vendors-through the end of the month, he was very interested in participating in the Prime Alliance Symposium May 7-9 in Seattle and decided he should go out there as a full-fledged employee. His last day at NSC was last Friday and he planned to hop a plane out to the West Coast Saturday.

“Keith Nolan's impressive achievements with NAFCU Services Corporation and Payment Systems for Credit Unions make him the ideal choice to lead Prime Alliance Solutions' new sales and marketing initiatives,” Joe Brancucci, president and CEO of Prime Alliance, said. “Prime Alliance, through its aggregation efforts, has managed to significantly improve the housing finance experience for members and lending operations for credit unions. We will, with Keith's experience, energy and passion, expand market share for credit unions while reducing the cost of homeownership for members everywhere.”

Nolan said he has achieved a positive difference in how NSC is viewed in the credit union community. “The company is 31 years old and the best five years it ever had in contributions back to the members- and NAFCU- were under me,” he explained. In the last five years, Nolan has increased the number of NSC Preferred Partners from nine to 22. Some of the most successful have been an overdraft partnership with Allied Solutions, executive benefits with CBIZ BENMARK, and Auto Financial Group's balloon note program. Through the Allied Solutions partnership, one large credit union told Nolan they saved enough to pay their annual dues to NAFCU.

NSC is in the middle of calculating member participation in each of the programs, which should be completed by the end of May.

“What I always tried to impress upon credit unions is it's no secret there are a ton of vendors who want your business, but you have everything to gain and nothing to lose by inviting in a Preferred Partner,” Nolan explained. After discussing options with them and others, he said, then the credit union should decide what direction to take.

Since becoming president of NSC in April 2001, Nolan said, “For me, pretty much everything I needed to do or could do, had been done.”

NSC Chairman Brad Beal, CEO of Nevada Federal Credit Union, commented, “Keith has done an outstanding job for NSC. He's built the company up significantly.” He continued, “He's been presented with a great opportunity and we're very happy for him.”

Prime Alliance, an NSC Preferred Partner since 2002, is a credit union mortgage solutions credit union service organization. Its customers account for 40% of all credit union mortgage lending. Prime Alliance boasts more than 1,350 users from credit unions to loan officers to real estate agents to builders nationwide.

In his new post, Nolan plans to dive right in and “hopefully make some tangible contributions.” He is already finalizing his goals for his first 90 days, like building a qualified sales team using one existing employee and adding two more, and then for the remainder of the year.

“Of course when you're successful, that means other companies are coming after you,” Nolan said. So far Mortgagebot has been successful in turning the conversation toward pricing and technology, but Nolan wants to redirect it toward promoting Prime Alliance as a “credit union, home-grown solution.” He said this is very important in the current climate of banker attacks against credit unions.

He also wants to take advantage of existing clients as salespeople, which means they need to be “more than satisfied.”

Nolan's new position has also afforded him a much shorter commute making him able to spend more time with his family, which is an added bonus, he said. After hours, he can usually be found at one of this son's sporting events or taxiing his stepdaughter around, he said, though golf is what he likes to do for himself when he gets the chance.

With both kids entering college shortly, Nolan and his wife are coming to terms with being “empty-nesters.” “We'll figure it out I'm sure,” he said, noting that they both enjoy traveling.

Prior to heading up NSC, Nolan served for 12 years at PSCU Financial Services ending as executive vice president and chief marketing officer. He worked in operations and marketing at Visa USA for seven years before that.

-scooke@cutimes.com

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Nolan Departs NAFCU Services Corp. to Join Prime Alliance

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