Two Shared Service Center Giants EnterInto ‘Partnership’

SAN DIMAS, Calif. - (11/12/04) Financial Service Centers Cooperative,Inc., (FSCC) and Service Centers Corporation (SCC), last weekannounced they have executed a Letter of Intent to form a strategicpartnership focused on the delivery of shared branching services tocredit unions. FSCC and Southfield, Mich.-based SCC, which is asubsidiary of the CO-OP Network, declined to say what the scope ofthe alliance would entail, saying that was still being negotiated.Instead, they said there were discussing a “partnership thatencompasses all aspects of shared branch delivery, includingtechnology, support, marketing and training.” CO-OP CEORobert Rose said although a full-blown merger could happen in thefuture, at this time, such a union is not on the table.“We’re trying to put everyone CO-OP Network platformsso we can get really tremendous economies of scale,” he said.“A lot of our client base is already participating in FSCCand SCC, so this benefits everyone.” The companies said thatparticipating CUs currently have access to 1,620 shared branchingfacilities in the US and six other countries.