CU Direct has announced the sale of its Lending 360 origination system to seven new credit unions representing 510,386 members and $8.6 billion in assets.
Lending 360 attaches to the credit unions' back-office operations and applies their existing rules, rates and lending criteria to each member's loan request. The system has a means of quickly and accurately verifying the applicant's income, loan history and credit ratings so that approvals can be made within a day or two, instead of several days or a week, according to Bill Meyer, communications/public relations lead for CU Direct, a CUSO based in Ontario, Calif. — just east of Los Angeles.
There are now 537 credit unions nationwide using the Lending 360 loan origination system, Meyer said.
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Advantis Credit Union, one of the seven to close deals with CU Direct by June 30, began the process of picking a new vendor two years ago after deciding to retire its legacy system, which was receiving dwindling technical support, Vice President of Retail Keli Myers said. Advantis is based in Clackamas, Ore., and has nearly $1.3 billion in assets and 63,827 members.
After reviewing proposals, Advantis selected two finalists: MeridianLink and CU Direct. The credit union picked CU Direct largely because it was already a heavy user of its CUDL system for originating car loans.
"We were already familiar with this vendor, and we knew it [Lending 360] would work on our system," Myers said.
CU Direct was slightly more expensive on the front-end — its system cost was about $70,000, she said — but the credit union calculated that its monthly and yearly savings would compensate.
The process of shifting to the new system will include gearing it up for internal and regulatory rules, training the system's trainers and training the rest of the employees who will use it.
When the system is up and running in February 2017, she expects users will find the online interface more responsive and intuitive.
"Today it's probably a little clunky," she said.
And, of course, members will be able to get cash from a loan much more quickly if all the lights are green for their income, credit history and other criteria. On the back-end, the system will enable the credit union to track data more quickly and better ensure that regulatory requirements are met, Myers said.
The other six credit unions implementing Lending 360 are:
- Visions Federal Credit Union, Endwell, N.Y. ($3.5 billion in assets, 179,226 members)
- Whatcom Educational Credit Union, Bellingham, Wash. ($1.2 billion in assets, 78,989 members)
- Operating Engineers Federal Credit Union, Livermore, Calif. ($971 million in assets, 73,734 members)
- Triangle Credit Union, Nashua, N.H. ($605 million in assets, 47,694 members)
- Align Credit Union, Lowell, Mass. ($557 million in assets, 26,461 members)
- Johns Hopkins Federal Credit Union, Baltimore ($400 million assets, 40,455 members)
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Jim DuPlessis
Jim covers economic data trends emerging for credit unions, as well as branch news and dividends.
