NCUA O.K.'s Third-Party Commissions ForFCUs

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - (02/14/05) -- A federal credit union may acceptcommissions for soliciting members to contract with an independentthird-party card processor, according to NCUA. In a new legalopinion letter, NCUA said such third-party solicitations are apermissible activity under the agency's incidental powers rules.Under the proposed arrangement, a credit union would solicitmembers who are retail merchants to contract for services with aprocessing CUSO. The credit union will act as a finder on behalf ofthe member/merchant for whom it will obtain discounted rates fromthe CUSO. The credit union will receive a commission on from theprocessor based on the transaction volume acquired from themember/merchant.