There is a shared vision between a CUSO and its owners about what is truly important. Using ideas from the best and the brightest in the industry ensures best practices are shared, resulting in the best products and services available. Credit union owners should expect their CUSO partner to positively influence their performance across nearly all business disciplines and operations, spanning the spectrum of payments. Benefits of a CUSO partnership include:

• Owners have the same tools and technologies at their disposal as big banks, and use the same data processing platforms. They can compete head on in areas including loyalty programs, digital payments, risk management expertise and more. By utilizing the power of collaboration, CUSOs can specialize in a given product or service, which enables them to provide higher-value products and services at a much lower cost.

• Access to industry leading partners gives a CUSO's owners the opportunity for early adoption of new payments technology. EMV chip cards and digital wallets like Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay are examples of sophisticated technologies that involve the coordination of many moving parts that are being successfully delivered to credit unions. This relieves owners of the burden of managing multiple endpoints, as well as provides access to services and expertise at far less cost than credit unions would incur by hiring individual experts.

• Protecting the organization and identifying risk falls on an Enterprise Risk Management practice. A CUSO's comprehensive and integrated ERM practices and processes can effectively manage risk within tolerance thresholds and tightly align with owners' strategic objectives.

• The cooperative ownership structure serves as a significant differentiator, as the profits of a cooperative are paid to its owners through annual cash dividends and equity investments in the CUSO.

In true cooperative fashion, a CUSO acts as an extension of a credit union's own staff through its commitment to delivering outstanding member service support. Owners are both shareholders with a stake in the company, as well as the client of the cooperative, and CUSO board positions are usually occupied by CEOs of the CUSO's owner credit unions.