Symitar Signs U.S. Central; Foresees More Corporates

Symitar Systems, a subsidiary of Jack Henry & Associates, suggested that its signing of U.S. Central Credit Union to an outsourcing contract is just the first of what should be more such business from corporate credit unions.

Symitar signed a seven-year deal to replace the $32-billion U.S. Central's core processing solution, currently provided by EDS. The Lenexa, Kansas-based U.S. Central is Symitar's first corporate client.

"We anticipate this will be part of a large opportunity among corporates for us," said Symitar CEO Bruce Cormode. "Others have sent us letters of intent." Cormode declined to identify those corporates.

U.S. Central, which said it spent two years reviewing its processing options, has chosen Symitar's Episys solution.

Until the U.S. Central signing, Symitar had served natural-person credit unions only. In serving the corporate Cormode said the company has had to do significant work on the front-end of software, since U.S. Central serves other corporates.

"There is a lot of software now that will fit other corporates," he said. "The requirements with a corporate are different in certain areas, such as (business to business). The challenge now is that the competition among corporates is fierce. We hope that we can help all of them to remain competitive."

Cormode credited the reputation of both Symitar and Jack Henry for closing the deal with U.S. Central. Symitar has lost very few credit unions to other processors once it gains their business.

"Our goal at one time was to offer a solution to every credit union in the United States," explained Cormode. "We wanted to offer a solution to small credit unions, mid-size credit unions and now corporate credit unions."

Cormode said Symitar already has one veteran IT exec on-site and that it has also assigned a team to U.S. Central. The company said revenue from the deal will begin to show in fiscal 2004.