PSCU invests in CULedger initiative

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PSCU on Tuesday announced its investment in CULedger, a credit union industry initiative for developing applications of distributed ledger technology.

According to the St. Petersburg, Fla.-based credit union service organization, distributed ledger technology, which it said offers a protocol that allows innovation around financial transactions, “may become the system on which the future of financial processes is built,” PSCU said in a statement.

“Credit unions must continuously research new methods to improve efficiency and security in order to remain competitive,” said Chuck Fagan, PSCU’s president and CEO. “CULedger will benefit credit unions and their members by reducing risks associated with cybersecurity and fraud, improving the member experience and reducing costs. We look forward to working with CULedger to bring this platform to market.”

“Our support of CULedger aligns with the market’s interest to determine how this powerful technology will be used by credit unions across several authentication and ledger use cases,” added Brian Caldarelli, EVP and CFO at PSCU.

The announcement of PSCU's partnership with CULedger comes as PSCU opens its 2018 Member Forum in St. Louis. Credit Union Journal is on-site to provide coverage of the event.

CULedger began in 2016 as a “research to action” initiative for developing a concept for a credit union system-wide, permissioned distributed ledger platform. In August 2017, the initiative announced the formation of a new credit union service organization called CULedger, LLC.

In October 2017, CULedger entered into an agreement with Swirlds, a company that created the hashgraph distributed consensus platform, under which CULedger will use Swirlds’ hashgraph technology.

In February 2018, CULedger partnered with Evernym to launch MyCUID, a product intended to help credit union members prevent fraud and identity theft.

Last month, CULedger joined Hyperledger, an open-source, international consortium of 231 organizations in 25 countries working on business blockchain and distributed ledger technologies.

CULedger, the CUSO, is supported by 13 credit unions and trusted industry investors. The company said it “has some exciting new developments around a global self-sovereign digital identity that will be market-leading and further enhance the trust credit unions have with their members.”

“CULedger will benefit credit unions and their members by reducing risks associated with cybersecurity and fraud, improving member experience and cutting costs,” the company said.