CU*NorthWest, a Liberty Lake provider of data processing and other services to credit unions, says it expects both its customer base and staff to grow sharply in the next year and is looking for a second facility to support its rapid growth.

"We have a really big year coming up," says its President and CEO Greg Smith.

CU*NorthWest, located at 23403 E. Mission, is what's known as a credit union service organization (CUSO). Such organizations provide data processing and technology to credit unions, but also can provide such support services as call centers, marketing, collections, bookkeeping, and government compliance.

Twelve of CU*NorthWest's 15 credit-union customers own the CUSO, and when it makes profits, its customer-owners decide either to reinvest the money back into CU*NorthWest or to take the profits in dividends or rebates. Credit unions pay the CUSO for the use of its technology and services. CU*NorthWest is averaging roughly 70 percent gross revenue growth per year, Smith says.

Through computer software called CU*Base, CU*NorthWest provides credit unions with technology needed to serve their members and to run their operations, Smith says. Additionally, the CUSO provides tools that allow credit unions to collaborate on joint business ventures, such as shared branching, in which credit unions join a network so their members have more locations at which to do business, and cooperative lending, which occurs when one credit union asks another to participate in a partnership to make a member a loan.

"Our software is built to get credit unions to collaborate effectively together," he says. "We're here to help credit unions work together so the credit union industry is healthier, helping them compete."

CU*NorthWest became profitable last year, its third year of operation. "Based on our initial five-year plan, CU*NorthWest did not initially anticipate profitability until year six, but due to the strong support of our owners and overwhelming market response, we are pleased to be ahead of schedule," says Smith.

The organization recently added its 15th customer, Bellingham, Wash.-based Pacific Northwest Credit Union.

"We anticipate growing to 19 customers within the next 90 days, which will sell us out for this year," Smith says, explaining that the CUSO won't be able to take on new customers beyond that until it adds more employees and gets more office space.

The CUSO currently employs 12 people, and plans to add seven employees this year, Smith says. He says it also is going to add a second office, possibly in Spokane Valley, that will house support, installation, and programming personnel. He expects that office to open in six to nine months, no later than September.

The Liberty Lake location, which has about 2,500 square feet of leased space and is used for both office and data center space, will continue to house the data-processing part of the business.

He's looking for a space two to three times as large as the Liberty Lake location.

"We anticipate closing deals in the next 180 days that will bring an additional four to five credit unions on our system next year," pushing its customer ranks to 23 to 24 credit unions in 2010, he says.

Smith says that while CU*NorthWest was not seeking additional customers in 2008, two more signed on, including Blue Mountain Credit Union, of College Place, Wash., near Walla Walla, and Spokane Law Enforcement Credit Union here.

Last year was an infrastructure-building year, Smith says. The CUSO quadrupled its processing capacity and doubled its staff, mostly adding computer programmers, operators, and back-office support staff.

The major challenge as CU*NorthWest grows, he says, is controlling the quality of its customer growth. "That's why I will not let my business grow beyond my ability to serve them," Smith says. "I'm actually adding the staff today to be able to deliver more in 2010."

He says CU*NorthWest competes with a host of companies nationally that provide data processing technology to financial institutions.

Recently, CU*NorthWest announced plans to offer a national shared-branch interface as a standard part of its base software, CU*Base, which will allow a single credit union to serve its members through thousands of affiliated credit unions, Smith says. CU*NorthWest will be working with a network of other credit-union owned data centers in the U.S.

CU*NorthWest was founded in 2005 by Inland Empire Trades Credit Union, Spokane Firefighters Credit Union, Spokane Media Federal Credit Union, and Spokane Catholic Credit Union.