CHEYENNE, Wyo. — WyHy Federal Credit Union and Western Vista Federal Credit Union have formed a managing CUSO known as UProsper Services Group, LLC, which they said will allow the CUs to collaborate as equal partners on a number of joint ventures.
WyHy FCU has $198 million in assets and serves 13,197 members, according to its most recent call report. Western Vista FCU has $137 million in assets and serves 9,506 members.
The two CUs — both based in Cheyenne and with branches in Casper, Wyo. — said most of the joint ventures they plan to pursue together will be organized as CUSOs. Each CUSO must be legally established as a Limited Liability Company (LLC) within the state of Wyoming. The Wyoming Secretary of State has already approved UProsper Services Group, LLC.
The leadership team for the managing CUSO has been established and includes the following: Tim Bolin, Western Vista's treasurer, will serve as chairman of UProsper, while Pam Fredrick, WyHy's vice chairwoman, will be vice chairwoman of the LLC. Bill Willingham, WyHy's president and CEO, and John Balser, Western Vista's president/CEO, are UProsper's secretary and treasurer, respectively.
The two credit unions said the various CUSO product and service focus names will vary somewhat based on the service provided, but the "UProsper" brand will be the common thread that will link all the products and services the CUSO will offer.
The first joint venture that UProsper will engage in is the development of UProsper Wealth Management, with a focus on UProsper Investment Services.
In the coming months, the two CUs said UProsper will continue to implement additional CUSO initiatives by making more formal announcements regarding the joint ventures that are intended to strengthen both credit unions' member relationships and "increase of their viability and success" within the communities they serve.
Many Reasons For Partnership
"There are a number of reasons credit unions form CUSOs together, and our reasons for partnering are to be able to offer additional service options that may have taken us much longer to offer on our own," Willingham said in a statement, noting that if each credit union were to attempt to create a standalone venture, the initial startup costs and ongoing operational expenses would be "too many to absorb on our own."
"But through collaborative efforts, we can then split these initial and ongoing costs, as well as other resources, making the venture more cost efficient and effective," he added.
Balser said the two credit unions decided to collaborate for several reasons.
"Given Western Vista and WyHy's similar fields of membership, locations within Cheyenne and Casper, each credit union's shared focus of member/community advocacy, as well as years of respect between the two credit unions' leadership, it became a reasonable fit to combine resources to better serve each credit union's existing, as well as future members."
By collaborating, Balser said the two CUs, "will have the ability to leverage the talent and capabilities of each credit union, helping both Western Vista and WyHy increase the value of our member/credit union relationships sooner rather than years down the line."
