Dear Members:

I’m happy to provide you with a mid-year update on our wholly owned credit union service organizations (CUSOs): Accolade Investment Advisory and Lucro Commercial Solutions. Both CUSOs were created to meet the needs of our members and yours, and both are central to the ongoing value Corporate One provides credit unions. Though these CUSOs provide distinctly different solutions, they share three key ingredients that distinguish them from their counterparts—expert staff, consultative and collaborative partnership styles, and meaningful solution offerings. These ingredients work together to drive results and help credit unions improve their businesses and serve their members better.

I’d like to take a moment to highlight our CUSOs’ recent efforts and achievements in the first half of 2023.

What they provide: Investment Advisory, Asset Liability Management, Loan Analytics services

CEO: Dave Fearing

Economic changes resulted in a liquidity crunch for credit unions, limiting investment activity and putting increased pressure on their balance sheets. Accolade has supported credit unions by providing stress-test reporting and education about rates, cost of funds, and funding options. Since the launch of Accolade’s CECL solution in 2022, more than 70 credit unions have successfully implemented CECL, and they continue to take advantage of the ongoing support provided by Accolade. And, as always, Accolade continues to develop and distribute relevant educational content via ongoing webinars, covering economic changes and outlooks and strategy suggestions.

What they provide: Member business lending support services and digital experiences for business loan applications

CEO: Nick Darvill

Lucro added 12 new credit unions to their Digital Business Lending Center (DBLC) in the first half of 2023, and enhancements to the DBLC and Evie, Lucro’s lender portal that provides full transparency into the underwriting process, are well underway. The DBLC’s successful connection with Corelation, an innovative credit union core processor, pulls existing member data into the DBLC, making the application process faster/easier for borrowers and more efficient for credit union loan onboarding. Enhancements to Evie include a new annual review scheduling feature, which helps credit unions automate their yearly reviews, and auditor functionality, which makes exams more seamless. And finally, Lucro has completed the development and launch of the new loan participation marketplace platform, Loan Split. Loan Split is a cloud-based platform that allows credit unions to buy and sell loan participations to one another in an efficient, cost-effective way. The platform also grants credit unions access to an entire network of other credit unions (potential buyers/sellers), that they might not otherwise reach. More details about Loan Split will be available soon. 

We continue to be proud of all the many ways our CUSOs shine as incubators of creativity, innovation, and invention, leveraging the CUSO model to take advantage of the opportunities to help even more credit unions thrive.

Best,