A company that credit unions own or lend to, set up mainly to provide services to credit unions or their members. Some underwrite and service business loans.
NCUA’s rule describes a CUSO as an entity in which a credit union has an ownership interest or to which it has made a loan, and which is engaged primarily in providing products or services to credit unions or their members. It is organized as a corporation, a limited liability company or a limited partnership.
A federal credit union’s stake is small by rule. Its total investments in CUSOs may not exceed 1 percent of its paid-in and unimpaired capital and surplus, and its loans to CUSOs have a separate 1 percent limit.
The list of permitted CUSO activities includes loan support services such as processing, servicing and sales, and loan origination, which covers buying and selling participation interests. That is why CUSOs appear in business lending. A group of credit unions can share one commercial credit team through a CUSO, and a CUSO is an eligible organization under the participation rule.
For a borrower this can mean the analyst reviewing the file works for a CUSO, not the credit union. On a loan the credit union makes, the credit union still decides and holds the loan. Ask who underwrites and who services, so questions go to the right desk.
How it shows up in the data here
CUSOs are not lenders of record in this site's data and have no rows of their own. A loan a CUSO helped underwrite shows up on the credit union that granted or purchased it. Which credit unions own or use a CUSO is not carried here. To find credit unions that take shares of other lenders' loans, use the participations filter.
Go further
- Credit unions that buy participations: Bought in the first half of 2026 or held at June 30, 2026.
- Credit union business lenders: Credit unions that made commercial loans, by state.
- How to place a business loan with a credit union: Credit unions make business loans, and some make a lot of them. Three things are different from a bank: the borrower must be a member, most credit unions work under a cap on business loans, and the limit to one borrower is set against net worth.
- Loan participations, explained: A participation lets one lender make a loan that is too large for it to hold alone. The borrower signs with one lender. Behind that lender, others own pieces of the loan and share its risk.
- A credit union lender's guide to working with brokers: Brokers bring loans a credit union would not otherwise see. Taking them well means four checks before credit: can the borrower join, is there room under the cap, is the loan inside the limit to one borrower, and who pays the broker.
Related terms
- Credit union: A member-owned cooperative lender. It lends to the people and businesses inside its field of membership and files a call report with NCUA every quarter.
- Loan participation: A loan in which other lenders buy shares from the lender that made it, under a written agreement that keeps the first lender in the loan for its whole life.
- Participant lender: A lender that buys a share of a loan another lender originated. It takes part of the credit exposure, usually without dealing with the borrower directly.
- Originating lender: The lender the borrower first contracts with, which then sells participations in the loan to other lenders and stays in the loan itself.
- Loan servicing: The work of running a loan after it closes: collecting payments, releasing draws, tracking the borrower's reporting and collateral, and handling changes or a default.
- Member business loan (MBL): A credit union's business-purpose loan to one of its own members. The total of these loans is capped by federal law; loans to non-members are counted separately.
Sources
Plain definitions for orientation, not legal, tax or credit advice. A lender's own policy decides what it will do.