Two big acquisitions – along with the typical string ofannouncements touting individual contract wins – dominated theheadlines this year in the core processing for credit unionsarena.

Harland Financial Solutions, provider of the venerable UltraDataplatform to about 330 credit unions, was sold to Toronto-basedDavis + Henderson Corp. this summer.

But the blockbuster was Open Solutions Inc.'s sale to FiservInc. early in 2013. The 800-pound gorilla of credit union coreprocessing immediately confirmed that it was going to sunset theonce-ballyhooed Acumen platform and began touting contract wins forits new acquisition.

“I think Fiserv acquiring OSI wasdefinitely interesting and did shake things up a bit. Most notablythe Acumen initiative was discontinued in favor of OSI's DNAplatform. This threw a curveball to some credit unions that wereeither already in-process or preparing to convert to Acumen,” saidScott Patterson, vice president of new business innovation atCallahan &Associates in Washington, D.C.

“However, this change may end up being a good thing in the longrun for these credit unions as DNA should prove to be a strongerplatform with an immediate wide base of users that can help pushdevelopments forward more quickly in the near term,” Pattersonsaid.

Consistent through all this change? Symitar's dominance of thelarge credit union market and continued success across the assetgroups, helped along by CUSO partners such as MDT Technologies inMichigan and league-owned Synergent in Maine serving as independentservice bureaus for the Jack Henry &Associates property.

Callahan has been tracking these numbers for years and theconsultancy's 2014 Credit Union Core Processors Market ShareGuide bear out the new trends and old.

For instance, while Fiserv still has 2,305 credit unions in thecore processing fold, almost a third of all credit unions in theUnited States, its CUSA platform, once used by more than 900 creditunions, primarily smaller ones, is now in place at 413, accordingto the Callahan guide.

Another well-known provider to small credit unions, the part ofthe market most hit by consolidation and closings, also showssmaller numbers. FedComp, which once served as many as 2,500 verysmall credit unions, now has 815 in the 2014 Callahan survey. AndR.C. Olmstead, a longtime mainstay of mainly Ohio credit unions, isat 54 after claiming as many as 130 in years past.

But opportunity could well continue going forward. “A key themewe're hearing here at Callahan in our conversations and clientroundtables is that credit union executives are worried that thebig providers may not focus on the credit union difference andevolving the systems fast enough,” Patterson said.

“The concern is that primary business focus will be on drivingshort-term share price and private equity deals as opposed toplatform or capability evolution. If the economy continues toimprove as expected, 2014 could be another big market growth andM&A year – note the two big Digital Insight ownership changesin 2013 alone,” Patterson said.

“Of course, that sort of focus doesn't often align well with thecredit union management focus. Credit union executives aregenerally looking for core system technology partners that arefocused on enabling them to continually do more for members and beahead of the technology capability curve relative to largecompetitors,” he said.

“If this concern becomes reality, it may open doors ofopportunity for relatively smaller, and possibly even creditunion-owned, solutions,” the Callahan executive said.

Indeed, Symitar's Episys core is being used by 587 credit unionswhile Sharetec, offered through four regional distributor-owners,claims 291 users and CU*Answers' CU*BASE is in place at 225 creditunions, EPL Inc. is at 71, and CMC's FLEX is at 259 and CompuSourceSystems is at 294, according to the Callahan survey. Another CUSO,Share One, says it has 104.