STAMFORD FEDERAL CREDIT UNION SELECTS COCC FOR TECHNOLOGY PARTNERSHIP

AVON, Conn., January 20, 2005 — Stamford Federal Credit Union has signed an agreement to utilize COCC’s open, relational data processing platform to meet the institution’s retail transactions, information security and check image processing needs. The Stamford, Connecticut-based credit union will convert from its in-house computer system to the COCC service bureau in October of this year.

Raymond F. Dowling, President/CEO Stamford Federal Credit Union with $50M in assets and 4,800 members, said, "We chose COCC because its open technology platform will help us serve the emerging needs of our membership. COCC’s full service offering made the difference for us. In addition to processing our members’ accounts, COCC can drive our ATMs, process our checks, provide secure email, and support our computer infrastructure. We are most impressed with COCC’s enthusiastic pursuit of technological change and by the availability of resources at all levels when we need advice and counsel.”

Increasingly complex requirements in information security also played a significant role in Stamford Federal’s decision. “IT security is a very big deal,” said Dowling, who described the difficulties in adhering to all the new requirements without professional assistance. “The fact that COCC provides secure email with the required risk assessment reporting is huge,” said Dowling.

Service is a consistent theme at Stamford Federal Credit Union. Owned by employees of the City of Stamford and their immediate family members, the credit union actively assists the city’s employees, including teachers, police, fire, and administrative personnel in making smart financial decisions. Dowling said that credit union staff visit member workplaces regularly to serve member needs.

The Stamford Chamber of Commerce recently recognized the credit union’s strong service culture with its “Business of the Year” award. Stamford Federal Credit Union was selected from the city’s 1600 business and professional firms for the award.

“We are pleased to welcome Stamford Federal Credit Union to COCC’s growing family of credit union clients,” said COCC’s President and CEO, Richard A. Leone. “As a client-owned service, COCC fits well with the credit union model of anticipating client needs. One of those needs is flexibility which can best be achieved by open, real-time technologies. Rather than continue to bolt on middleware and front-end systems, an increasing number of financial institutions are addressing the heart of the problem, the underlying legacy core data processing platform, with newer relational technology at the core. We believe that the industry as a whole is shifting away from legacy technology and as a result, COCC is positioned to lead this transformation within our industry.” 

COCC has recently experienced strong growth in the credit union movement by serving a broad range of credit union clients, including clients with 1,000 to 100,000 members. In the past year alone, the company has increased its credit union base by more than 300%. COCC is committed to meeting the technology service needs of credit unions in the Northeastern United States through Total Quality Processing, the company’s brand name for its high quality data processing services.