The Regional CUSO Alliance, a group comprising more than a dozen business lending CUSOs, will meet in May to exchange best practices and address industry challenges and opportunities.

The focus of the meeting will be to review and discuss the current lending climate and regulatory initiatives, according to the alliance. At past meetings, attendees have worked together to develop shared underwriting standards, participation processes and agreements, regulatory documents and more.

Representatives from the NCUA and National Association of State Credit Union Supervisors are scheduled to attend the RCA's meeting.

Mark Bostock, president of construction, commercial and mortgage lending CUSO Centennial Lending LLC in Denver and one of the founding members of RCA, cited the importance of the group and gathering.

“We're in the business of helping credit unions compete and grow. CUSOs helping CUSOs is an unselfish collaboration model that allows credit unions to benefit from a collective effort,” Bostock said.

The meeting will take place May1-2 in Ann Arbor, Mich., and will be hosted by the Michigan Business Connection, a commercial lending and underwriting CUSO.

Bill Beardsley, president of MBC, said RCA has had great exchanges with regional and national regulators and examiners at previous gatherings and the group is looking forward to a collaborative dialogue in May.

Formed in 2009, the RCA said its members collectively serve nearly 500 credit unions and has more than $3 billion in commercial lending assets.