Horizon Community Credit Union licenses Fidelity banking technology

Chartered in 1932 as the credit union for Proctor & Gamble employees - now with more than $35 million in assets - Horizon will leverage Fidelity's comprehensive information technology solutions to fully support the institutions' rapid growth and offer a wider array of more personalized services to its nearly 4,500 member base.

"Our member-focused business approach required that we seek out a newer and much more powerful technology platform complete with the comprehensive Internet and telephone banking capabilities needed to competitively distinguish our credit union and fully serve our members," said Patrick G. Josephson, Horizon Community Credit Union president and CEO. "We also knew we needed the help of a partner that could prove they had the business knowledge and market understanding it would take to ensure our success. When our analysis was done, Fidelity was clearly superior to its competitors in terms of not only its technology innovation and industry knowledge but also in the number and quality of client references that served to validate our decision to purchase Mercury."

Fidelity's Mercury is a Windows-complete system - or one that adheres to standards established by Microsoft - and is designed specifically to meet the needs of mid-tier credit unions with a goal of establishing highly personalized, member-centric relationships. In addition to Mercury, Horizon will leverage a number of additional capabilities from Fidelity, including its SmartCollector collections management solution, Home Banking and Interactive Voice Response systems. A nationwide ATM network, eStatements and Business Banking are among the additional capabilities integral to Mercury, many of which Horizon plans to implement in the future.

"Like Horizon, many growth-oriented credit unions are looking for an integrated and proven solutions approach - more often than not from a single provider - that equips them to effectively and easily improve their member relationships and, ultimately, their business performance," stated Santo Cannone, senior vice president of Fidelity's Integrated Financial Solutions division and executive in charge of the company's credit union business. "By selecting Fidelity as its outsourcing partner, Horizon can now devote critical energy to serving the needs of its rapidly growing market while we focus on delivering the integrated solutions and management resources required to optimize both its service portfolio and its member relationships."