SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio Federal Credit Union is going first again. Perhaps the first credit union in the country to do indirect auto lending, beginning nearly 20 years ago, the $1.8 billion CU now is the first to use DealerTrack's eContracting, a document system that SACU officials say is a final piece in making the end-to-end paperless deal a reality.

Software from DealerTrack, a New York-based specialist in connecting lenders and auto dealers, is already used by tens of thousands of dealers, credit unions and banks across the country. eContracting allows contract documents to be transmitted electronically to financing sources and funding to be received by the dealer, often in the same day.

Electronic vault capabilities also are part of the package. "We started with this July 1 and have done about 90 deals so far," says Chuck Smith, first vice president of lending for 232,000-member SACU, which also provides indirect-lending services to 19 other credit unions through its CUSO aptly named Credit Acquisition Resource Systems (CARS).