PSCU Assets Grew 23% Before Acquiring Co-Op Solutions

Annual report shows its special dividend nearly doubled, while capital spending fell in the year ending in September.

PSCU headquarters in St. Petersburg, Fla. Credit/PSCU

PSCU’s annual report released in January showed the payments CUSO had strong growth in its last year before acquiring Co-Op Solutions.

PSCU ended its fiscal year Sept. 30, 2023 with $1.6 billion in assets, up 23% from a year earlier, while its revenue rose 16% to $871 million.

In December it paid $31 million in patronage dividends to its owner credit unions, nearly double the $16.1 million paid a year earlier. The fiscal 2023 dividend was 1.9% of average assets, up from 1.3% in fiscal 2022 and 1.6% in 2021. Until this year the ratio has been falling since at least 2016, when it was 5.5% of average assets.

Chuck Fagan, PSCU

“PSCU is proud to once again deliver an outstanding dividend to our owner credit unions – a 93% year-over-year increase – while maintaining a record level of capital spend that continues to grow,” President/CEO Chuck Fagan said in a Dec. 14 news release. “PSCU remains a financially healthy cooperative, with a firm commitment to delivering both ongoing investments in innovation and strong returns for our owners.”

PSCU’s annual report also showed:

In 2022, PSCU’s $61.7 million in capital spending was 4.8% of average assets — about on par with 2021’s 5.1% and down from a recent peak of 6% in 2020.

The annual report also showed PSCU had 3,400 employees, the same as it reported a year earlier, and not including those added through its year-end acquisition of Co-op Solutions, a competing CUSO based in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., 40 miles east of Los Angeles. Its 1,940 employees worked in Rancho Cucamonga, Fort Worth, Texas and Des Moines, Iowa.

Co-op, which generally served smaller credit unions, generated $527 million serving 2,650 credit unions in 2022. Its assets were $588 million at the end of 2022.