WALLINGFORD, Conn. – The corporate CU network as it's known has become more competitive in recent years according to many of its leaders, but cooperation is still alive and well – Constitution State Corporate CU is showing that. The $1 billion Constitution State Corporate CU formed SmartSource Solutions, a CUSO, earlier this year to work cooperatively with other corporates on back-office services such as share draft processing, check collection, and wire transfers. Just recently SmartSource Solutions announced its first deal, an electronic processing contract with fellow corporate Central CU Fund of Auburn, Mass. Under the deal, SmartSource Solutions will provide Central CU Fund's CU members with share draft processing. "We're doing the processing for about 17 credit unions that were on their program. Those credit unions are in the middle of converting to us," said Greg Gallant, president of SmartSource Solutions. This is just the beginning of cooperation, said Gallant. "We believe there are opportunities that exist with corporates to work together in a smaller group, perhaps where their initiatives and desires are more consistent across the board," said Gallant. "It could be anything from wires and share draft processing to ATM services. We've been getting inquiries from other corporates since this CUSO was formed," said Gallant. "There is still that environment to come together and cooperatively approach things. That is something that is unique, perhaps fleeting in the industry today," said Gallant. Gallant, who has been involved with corporates for 20 years, said corporates are evolving, getting into more areas of a CU's operation, and recognizing that the old way corporates did things may not fly in the future. "There's finally a recognition that credit unions want and need to go out and acquire market share. They will go out and get services from a corporate or someone else. You have to be willing to break out of the old mold of what defined a corporate," said Gallant. Corporates have been breaking their old molds. More are branching into e-com activities, and almost all of the larger corporates are now marketing outside of their primary regions. Gallant said things that corporates have thought about for years are going to start happening. "It seems a lot of things are talked about among corporates, but never actually acted upon. It may be that there are too many conflicting interests in the process. Hopefully this CUSO gives corporates the ability to get together and study different things," said Gallant, who noted that SmartSource Solutions will look at just about any initiative that will benefit corporates. For example, Gallant said there has been talk among corporates about migrating off of the Corporate Credit Union Network, a core processing solution offered by EDS and U.S. Central. "Some think it's about time we got off of that and onto something else. This could be the perfect vehicle for those discussions," said Gallant. Gallant said like other corporates, U.S. Central also needs to evolve. "I think there will always be a need for a U.S. Central, but what that organization is going to look like in the future is still developing," Gallant said. [email protected]