Author: Jalyn Lindeman

Each year NACUSO recognizes CUSOs pushing to make a difference within the industry through the prestigious CUSO of the Year Awards. The 2021 CUSO of the Year Awards consisted of nine candidates established for more than five years, and were examined on the following criteria:

• Thought Leadership and Critical Thinking
• Innovation in Organization Design
• Value Created Through the Use of Collaboration
• Implementation and Execution
• Results, Outcomes and Performance

After careful consideration and interviews with the nine candidates, all of which had good stories to tell, the results are as follows:

2021 CUSO of the Year Award Winner:

• LoanStar Technologies

LoanStar Technologies developed a point-of-sale Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) system with the help of 4 credit unions who are owners of LoanStar. They have taken loans that were typically high interest rate (i.e. almost predatory loans) at POS and changed to make a monthly payment members can afford without the high rates and fees. LoanStar has 33 credit unions on their platform, and they recently acquired CU Direct’s OnSpot business.  LoanStar expects to originate $1 billion in loans in 2022.

LoanStar is a full digital experience, the member does not have to go into a branch, they do everything online or with the organization who sells products/services to the consumer. LoanStar has a sales force to help sell to merchants (i.e. dentists, home improvement providers, golf card dealer, etc.) on behalf of a lender. They typically have only one ldner to a merchant, except for big merchants like Renewal by Andersen (window replacement), which is a nationwide relationship.

Andy Turner, founder and CEO, describes LoanStar as a atech company that helps credit unions make loans.  LoanStar has an advisory committee that includes credit unions owners and users as well as CUNA Mutual, to help guide the business. LoanStar is paid a percentage of funded loans, so is paid on a success basis, and LoanStar is profitable.  Andy said LoanStar will do $100 million in swimming pool loans and $10 million in laser eye surgery in 2021, and that LoanStar helps credit unions to generate new members, by offering BNPL loans that eligible members want to utilize.

2021 CUSO of the Year – Honorable Mention:

• QCash Financial

In 2005 WA State Employees Credit Union discovered members were using predatory payday lenders to help make ends meet and started QCash to help members with reasonable rates and financial education.  Ten years later, in 2015, QCash Financial was spun off as an independent CUSO to help credit unions across the USA serve their members short term cash needs. We felt QCash’s innovative solution to predatory payday lenders, ingenious approach to underwriting and leading-edge digital delivery as well as their growing impact deserved special recognition.

Approximately 157 million people struggle financially in the U.S. and 43% of Americans cannot handle an unexpected $400 expense. QCash does not use credit scores, they use relational underwriting (based upon the member’s relationship with the CU), and have less than a 5% charge off rate!  Members can get cash into their CU account in under 60 seconds 24x7x365 through their mobile app or the credit union’s website. QCash has both live event loans and specialty loans. Average loan size is $1,200 – $1,500.

39 credit unions are currently using QCash and QCash integrates directly with the Core system of the CU, and their system sets up the loan, setsup an auto payment schedule, etc. In Oregon, a credit union was offering wildfire evacuation loans through QCash. QCash is a SaaS platform, and they have a success business model, so QCash only gets paid when they fund a member loan for a credit union. Credit unions set the rates and any fees, and it is driven by what credit union goals are. The QCash platform is multi-lingual.

Since inception, QCash has made nearly 700,000 loans. Seth Brickman, CEO has a real passion about helping members and he looks at the number of loans they make each day as the number of families they have helped. QCash has 40 credit unions in their funnel. They recently went live with Wright-Patt CU in OH and did 1,300 loans in the first 3 days.

New CUSO of the Year 2021 Award Winner:

Payac CLG

Ireland’s credit unions are numerous but small.  After the financial crisis in 2008, scores of credit unions were insolvent but there were no powers to solve the problem.  There were no rules regarding mergers or collaboration. The University of Cork hosts a credit union symposium each year.  In 2012, Guy Messick was invited to speak to the Irish credit unions about the use of CUSOs in the United States.  Guy invited Ray Crouse, Kirk Drake, Jeff Russell, and Mark Zook to join him and share their lessons learned.  In 2016, Guy was invited back to speak.

Despite the obstacles, some credit union thought leaders knew that collaboration business models were the lifeline the Irish credit unions needed to survive.  They planned a CUSO that provided payment services, but they first had to obtain the legal authority to do so.  Changing the law was not practical but finding a way to interpret powers within the existing law was worth a try.  They spent 18 months working closely with the credit union regulator to add CUSO powers under the “Additional Powers” section of the credit union law.  Next, the organizers needed to acclimate credit unions to the collaboration model.   They distributed Guy Messick’s book “Credit Union Collaborations: Lessons Learned” to credit unions to communicate the mindset and expectations for successful collaborations.

Payac was formed by six credit union investors.  Payac now has over fifty credit union customers.   Payac is the first CUSO in Ireland with direct credit union investment.  Payac provides payment accounts to enable credit unions to use debit cards, checking accounts, check clearing and a host of back office support services such as regulatory support, training, marketing, analytics, call center, reconciliation, fraud management, and vendor management.  Through common governance, standardization, and scale, Irish credit unions are now able to offer additional services and enjoy reduced prices and preferred service from vendors.  The credit unions now have access to large vendors as FIS MasterCard.  For the first time, Irish credit unions are earning fee income through the payment services.

Each credit union owner has an equal ownership share but users of a service have weighted voting regarding the services. Profits are reinvested in services. Payac is a CUSO pioneer that is transformational.   It has created the powers, culture, and example for Irish credit unions to leverage the powers and potential of collaboration.

Although pandemic travel restrictions prevented Payac from being able to accept the award on the NACUSO stage, Barry Feeney, Payac CFO, expressed their gratitude virtually through this acceptance video:

2021 New CUSO of the Year – Honorable Mentions:

Curql Collective

As more commerce is conducted on digital platforms, Fintechs have grown exponentially.   Many Fintechs are competitors of financial institutions but some wish to partner with financial institutions.  Banks have invested heavily in Fintechs, participated on the Fintech boards, and shaped the Fintechs to better serve banks.   Credit unions do not have that level of influence.  The amounts they can invest are more modest and the investment turn around time is much too long, disjointed, and undisciplined for the Fintechs.

Enter Culql Collective.  In order to have an impact in the marketplace, there must be a significant fund to make investments that is run by experienced professionals who make timely decisions.   The investments must be financially prudent with strategic objectives.  The strategic objectives are (1) to find service providers that offer value to credit unions and (2) to have influence over the direction of the Fintech to preserve and expand the value, i.e., board representation.

Cirql was extremely successful in obtaining investment capital.   Their first subscription amount will be $250 million.    Due to the high interest by credit unions, a second round of funding is expected to be offered in the future. The Curql Fund is managed by a profession fund manager.   The Cirql Collective is the CUSO that makes the Fintech investment decisions from the Cirql Fund.  All investors have an equal vote regardless of the amount of their investment.

Cirql is also transformational.   For the first time, credit unions are credible players in the Fintech investment world.  This will dramatically increase the ability of credit unions to influence Fintechs to better serve them.  Since all Fintechs have to primarily serve credit unions in order to accept the Cirql investments, the Fintechs will become CUSOs or form associated CUSOs, which ties them closer to the credit union culture.  The success of credit unions in today’s world requires the use of the latest technology that is mostly developed outside of credit unions.  By forging closer partnerships with the technology innovators, Cirql is providing the means for credit unions to stay relevant in the lives of their members.

Nymbus CUSO

The Nymbus business model is to provide the technology suite of services credit unions need to serve specific member segments and the expertise to implement the technology and services.  For example, a credit union may want to serve a specific ethnic group but needs the technology and people skills that are different than the credit union currently offers.  Rather than try to modify the current technology and services of the entire credit union, the credit union creates a “division” that runs in parallel with the main technology and services.  The credit union may dedicate its employees to run the division, or the operation may be outsourced to Nymbus.   The credit union division concept may also arise when a merger occurs, and the credit union wants to keep the brand of the merged credit union to serve the members of the merged credit union.   As the division is part of one credit union, the general ledgers communicate with each other to have a unified reporting of the credit union’s financials.  In time, a credit union may elect to use Nymbus for all its core technology needs.

Nymbus uses a collaborative business model to leverage technology and personnel to give credit unions the tools to customize services to their members and remain an effective competitor in the financial marketplace.   Nymbus has the potential to be a game changer in the credit union industry.