PSCU Financial Services Urges Credit Unions to Use VMAlliance

Consortium to Begin Delivering Vendor Risk Management Resources in Q2

St. Petersburg, FL, May 5, 2008 –PSCU Financial Services announced it has taken an early lead in  supporting the newly organized VMAlliance, an innovative vendor risk management resource sponsored by the Credit Union Information Security Professionals Association (CUISPA). This industry-wide information-sharing consortium, located at www.vmalliance.org, is scheduled to go live in the second quarter of 2008.

VMAlliance provides valuable resources and online tools to help credit unions efficiently manage requirements for vendor due diligence, risk assessment, monitoring, and regulatory compliance. This organization addresses the risks associated with not performing vendor management or regulatory compliance issues.

VMAlliance brings financial institutions together with solution providers and the NCUA in a consortium that establishes a standard methods for addressing the challenge of managing risk within independent company’s domains. The VMAlliance will define industry acceptable practices, provide due diligence, and eliminate the redundancy and lack of consistency currently associated with vendor management solutions. It evaluates vendors and helps ensure compliance with NCUA requirements.

Credit unions benefit from centralized vendor management, a compliance advisory network, industry standardized evaluation criteria, peer communication and ways to measure, monitor and control risk. Credit union vendors gain recognition for maintaining high standards and benefit from a centralized customer inquiry management system, consensus-based industry defined requirements, and overall reduction of unnecessary and costly assessments.

“This consortium delivers advantages for both credit unions and the organizations that service them,” said David J. Serlo, President and CEO, PSCU Financial Services. “VMAlliance leverages the industry’s cooperative characteristics to deliver a forum that helps vendors consolidate requests and meet industry-defined requirements, while simplifying credit unions evaluation and selection of vendors.”

Ray Murphy, Information Security Program Manager for Navy Federal Credit Union, adds, "VMAlliance is a great step forward in filling a void that has existed for years. Credit unions and service providers will benefit from the information made available through VMAlliance.”

Credit unions of all sizes can use the consortium to manage vendor relations, track contract details, contact information, set alerts, generate reports, manage risk inquiries, and communicate with peers. Credit unions can use VMAlliance to evaluate new vendors, review vendor specifics and gain input from other credit unions about a vendor. For more information, please visit www.vmalliance.org.

About PSCU Financial Services

Based in St. Petersburg, Florida, PSCU Financial Services is the nation's largest credit union service organization (CUSO) and serves more than 1,100 financial institutions nationwide. As a non-profit cooperative, the company is owned by more than 500 member credit unions representing over 11 million cardholder accounts and more than 580,000 online bill payment subscribers. Its Contact Center handles more than 14 million inquiries a year. PSCU Financial Services maintains an Eastern operations center in St. Petersburg, Florida, and a Western operations center based in Phoenix, Arizona. The cooperative’s wholly owned subsidiary, Digital Dialogue, operates two 24/7 call centers in Detroit, Mich., that specialize in member services, new member acquisition, cross-selling and automated lending solutions.

Established in 1977, the company provides a broad array of cost-effective, high quality financial services that include credit, debit, ATM, prepaid, bill payment and contact center solutions. PSCU Financial Services uniquely offers its members a full range of processing options, any combination from full service to in-house pass through processing for credit, debit and ATM transactions. As a leader in the credit union movement, the company offers gateway access to national and regional networks. It also provides full function ATM terminal driving services.

For more information, visit the company's Web site at http://www.pscufs.com.

Top