Corporate Unites With SVPCO Check Exchange

NEW YORK– Members United Corporate FCU, the corporate giant created by last year’s merger of two corporate credit unions, became the first credit union to connect with SVPCO, the fledgling electronic check and image exchange. The addition of the $14 billion corporate represents the onset of the second-step marketing of the national exchange, following the earlier connections to the nation’s largest banks, most of whom are part-owners of the network, according to Susan Good, vice president of products and services at SVPCO. “We’re looking at the next level of aggregators,” Goold told The Credit Union Journal yesterday, adding that other corporates are in their sites. “We’re talking to a number of corporates. Hopefully, this won’t be the last.” Several corporates have already connected to the national check and image grid via Endpoint Exchange, the other private-sector network owned by Metavante, or the Federal Reserve, which is working to privatize the payments system. SVPCO is a conglomeration of as many as eight regional check clearinghouses that is now owned by 20 of the biggest banks, including: JP Morgan Chase, Citibank, Bank of America, Wachovia, Wells Fargo, KeyBank, Fifth Third Bank and U.S. Bank. Members United is the conglomeration of three recently merged corporate credit unions: Mid-States Corporate FCU, Empire State Corporate FCU and Central CU Fund, which recently acquired the Illinois CU League’s check processing operations.