CUNA Mutual Selects Ft. Worth Site For New Customer Operations Center

CUNA Mutual has identified the site for its new Customer Operations Center here, which represents the company's effort at a "new breed of customer service."

Up to 700 people will be employed in the new facility, to be located in the Fort Worth CentrePort Business Park on the far east side of town. As many as 400 of those people could transfer from within the company, although it seems unlikely. About half that number are divided among 11 regional offices providing support to Collateral Protection Insurance (CPI) operations. Another 190 are already based at the LoanLink Center operating in Grand Prairie, Texas.

How many employees will lose their jobs or not choose to accept new positions is unknown at this time.

CUNA Mutual Spokesperson Rick Uhlmann said the additional 300 hires are expected to come in the CPI area, as the company believes it has substantial opportunity to increase the 48% marketshare among credit unions that it has in that market.

Approximately 70 people will be working out of temporary facilities by year-end, with the 105,000-square-foot facility slated to open in the Spring of 2007. CUNA Mutual said it looked at more than 300 locations in the U.S. for the new center, before settling on Fort Worth. The project is contingent on the Fort Worth City Council approving as an economic incentive a 10-year, 75% property tax abatement that would save the company an estimated $70,000 a year.

As reported earlier in The Credit Union Journal, CUNA Mutual CEO Jeff Post has been pushing the company to overhaul nearly every aspect of its service to credit unions, which he has referred to as a "multi-year transformation plan."

Uhlmann noted the work processes and technology being piloted at the new Operations Center will be transferred across the company.

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