PADUCAH, Ky. — When it came time for Alliance Institutional Services, LLC to find a partner that would provide a business lending documentation system that would not only meet compliance standards and grow its clientele quickly, the CUSO took a 'what if' approach.
Formed in February 2007, Alliance offers owner and non-owner credit unions a wide range of business lending, deposit, and consulting services. The CUSO, originally launched by $122 million C-Plant Federal Credit Union, is in the process of expanding its ownership to up to six credit unions by the start of 2008, said Travis Clem, president of Alliance.
After looking at several potential entities, Alliance signed on with Wolters Kluwer Financial Services' Rembrandt Lending System, a solution that processes business/commercial, agricultural, construction, consumer, real estate, and home equity loans; renewals and modifications, letters of credit; and denials and other adverse actions with a combination of dynamic and static documents.
"We ran a hypothetical scenario where Alliance would grow to include 20 client credit unions in the next 3 years and Rembrandt won hands down in terms of the flexibility of adding new members and its pricing structure as we expand," said Clem. "And from a compliance standpoint, Rembrandt takes the worry away when documenting complex business lending transactions."
Alliance's affinity towards Wolters Kluwer wasn't a new one. The CUSO had previously used other services offered by the company, Clem said. But it considered others as a partner because fee structure and user licenses had to fit with Alliance's overall business plan. The partnership is aiding in Alliance's rollout of services to prospective credit unions.
"The top priority is to get to new owners and get that process hammered out," Clem said. "As they become owners, they become clients."
Beyond getting the software set up at credit unions, Clem and his team of two at Alliance will conduct training sessions. Clem went on to say that Rembrandt Lending, which can help financial institutions remain compliant in all 51 U.S. jurisdictions was better suited for Alliance's growth plan than any other documentation software the CUSO evaluated.
"Rembrandt is a big piece of our plan for the future," Clem said. "Part of Alliance's strategy is to leverage the use of technologies such as Rembrandt to become more operationally efficient as we expand our ownership, clientele and business. Doing so means we can not only keep costs down for our owner and non-owner credit unions but also offer them a greater variety of products and services that meet their individual needs"
Clem added that as Alliance expands into Small Business Administration lending, the CUSO plans to use Wolters Kluwer's SBA lending software, TSoft SBA FormMaster+. The software aims to automate the clerical work and calculations that take up so much time during loan application preparation for SBA loans.
"Part of the challenge with SBA loans is that [the agency] has a reputation of being cumbersome to lenders," Clem said. "What drives us is efficiency. A small entity such as ours, we have to project maintaining certain level of staffing and leveraging technology. Part of that process is doing it in a faster manner and turning them around in a faster manner."
Clem said Alliance's geographic location likely gives it an edge in reaching out to credit unions centered in the Midwest.
"We're only one of a few Midwestern CUSOs. Most are using [CUSOs] out in California and Florida, where the proverbial [housing] bubble is."
–msamaad@cutimes.com
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