LAKE MARY, Fla. - Fiserv CBS Worldwide is poised to pick up a lot of credit union business in Mexico. The processor has certainly put the work in. It has worked to update and upgrade its system so it is compliant with Mexico's new regs on credit unions. Mexico first cracked down on its banks and now has moved to credit unions. It's a much needed move as Mexico for years has been plagued with people starting CUs one day, taking deposits, and then quickly shuttering their doors. Fiserv CBS Worldwide is working closely with WOCCU to get a better feel for what Mexico's credit unions need. Last year Fiserv CBS signed Mexico's largest CU in Caja Popular Mexicana, which has over one million members, 330 branches and a billion dollars in assets. At press time, it announced it has signed Mexico's sixth largest CU in CoopDesarrolo. It has 100,000 members, 24 branches and 183 employees. CoopDesarrolo expects to be one of the first CUs in compliance with the new regs, known as Ley de Ahorro y Credito Popular, which will be supervised by the Comision Nacional Bancaria y de Valores and by the Confederacion de Cooperativa Fiancieras de la Republica Mexicana. One of CoopDesarrolo's main objectives right now is promoting savings among young people. It is currently working on that that effort with more than 50 schools. Mexican credit unions have until Dec. 31 of this year to present to the government a plan for how they will comply with new regs. Oscar Sol, sales director of Fiserv CBS Worldwide's Latin America, Caribbean and Canada operations says the new regs make Mexico CUs much more legitimate. "Credit unions now have to comply with certain regulations in terms of capital, loan participation, more regular reports, new ways to adjust for inflation in the accounting reports. They have to start paying value added tax and etcetera, etcetera. It's all to protect the funds of the members," said Sol. From his sales perspective, Sol believes Fiserv CBS Worldwide will start seeing sales snowball because of these two signings. "We are now one of the vendors that has a solution that not only has all the credit union functionality, but also meets regulatory requirements to help them comply," said Sol. Sol, who knows the Mexican CU market well, believes the new reg will force many smaller Mexican CUs to merge because they can't handle the burden of the new regs. He hopes however that Fiserv CBS' ability to deliver them a solution in a cost-efficient service bureau mode, will help more stay in business. Fiserv CBS Worldwide provides a good example of Fiserv's global presence. "We are the largest division (of Fiserv) that handles core banking applications internationally. We have a relatively large U.S business unit as well, but we have extensive credit union experience in Australia and Canada, and in Latin America," said Dan Alf, senior vice president of Latin America, Caribbean and Canada for Fiserv CBS. "There's quite a bit of opportunity out there in Latin America as they are looking to replace core systems in order to create more stability in their applications," said Alf. One well-known and in the news U.S. client of Fiserv CBS Worldwide is Community CU. It's worth noting that in the U.S. at least the CBS solution is geared more for banks, though with CUs getting into business lending that is changing. [email protected]