PSCU Finalizes Purchase Of Card Issuer Primax

Payments credit union service organization (CUSO) PSCU has acquired payment solution firm Primax, according to a press release.

PSCU president and CEO Chuck Fagan said PSCU and Primax shared many of the same values.

“PSCU has transformed its business model and evolved from a transactional processor and reseller of a platform partner’s products to an integrated, value-add financial technology solution provider, and we look forward to delivering the benefits of this scale to Primax clients,” he said, according to the press release.

Primax has been working with designing and providing services for payment card programs for credit unions for 40 years in the U.S. and the Caribbean, the press release adds.

Primax president and CEO Ted Keith Jr. said PSCU had already worked on many things Primax clients could utilize, including “digital and mobile banking, security and fraud mitigation solutions, business intelligence and data analytics, and expert consulting services to help optimize operations and portfolios,” the release states.

PSCU executive vice president and chief experience officer Dean Young told PYMNTS recently that credit unions (CUs) had to take the current moment to adapt to a new, more digital-friendly lifestyle for the foreseeable future.

He said it didn’t have to mean that the physical operations are neglected — rather, that the experience be integrated whenever the physical operations are fully safe again.

One solution for the pandemic times Young raised was that of interactive teller machines (ITMs), which could help provide a face-to-face human experience, but with a distancing appropriate for the current time through using remote tellers.

And for the long run, Young said the pandemic had massively accelerated digital practices. He said CUs would have to be prepared for new challenges, as people working from home and doing financial business from home, too, have changed or eliminated many old standard ways of doing business.