In the 15 years or so prior to his retirement, former NCUA Chairman and Patelco Credit Union President/CEO Ed Callahan probably told me at least 100 times that if one or more credit unions can work together to bring better delivery channels, services or prices to their members then they should and must do so.

For Ed, it was always about the member first. His career proved that driven by that solemn promise to the member, we could build a regulatory environment that seeded a period of unprecedented expansion and health in the credit union community and as a CEO, build a multibillion credit union meeting the needs of thousands of members.

Over the last 30 years, the man who provided the regulatory capacity for credit unions to form a CUSO and who should be included on the list of the greatest credit union leaders, along with Bergeron and Filene, cajoled and harangued us to leverage that authority into the many successful collaborative CUSOs that exist today. The networked business model that Ed predicted 25 plus years ago would necessarily predicate the success of credit unions in the 21st century is alive and working in the nation's CUSOs today. But even today I think, if we could ask him, he would say the model is greatly underutilized and at some considerable risk.