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UW Credit Union’s leap of faith increases member convenience and grows indirect lending by 200 percent.
This article was originally published on the CU Direct blog and is adapted with permission. Read the original post here.
University of Wisconsin Credit Union has come a long way with its indirect auto lending since first implementing CUDL—Ontario, Californa-based CUES supplier member CU Direct’s digital lending platform—in more ways than one.
Mike Long, EVP/chief credit officer for the $2.7 billion credit union based in Madison, Wisconsin, recalls bygone days of rudimentary technology and manual processes, resulting in slow turnaround times. The contrast 11 years later, he says, is night and day.
“Back in 2007, we only funded 920 indirect auto loans for the whole year. Now, we are up to 1,300 to 1,500 per month,” Long reports. “When we first started with CUDL, our dealer relationships were non-existent. We did not call on any dealerships; we just took what came in. Our service levels have improved greatly.”
Using the CUDL platform today, UW Credit Union does seven-minute loan decisions and same-day funding. Back when the CU was doing fax deals, it might have taken seven minutes just to punch in the details.
Indirect Lending and Member Convenience
Initially, UW Credit Union made the decision to implement an indirect lending program to add member convenience. Back in 2007, the CU recognized the majority of vehicles were being financed at the dealership, Long says, “and we wanted to be there.” Indirect lending has since evolved into a key member acquisition strategy as well as a member convenience strategy.
“When we decided to automate the process in 2007 and get involved with CUDL, the lending platform did not have a presence with dealers here in Madison, much less across the state of Wisconsin,” Long recalled. “We took a leap of faith that, because we are one of the biggest auto lenders in our market, we could help push the dealers to use CUDL—and it has worked out.” Today, the credit union is the biggest auto lender in Dane County and No. 2 overall in Wisconsin. “Before using the CUDL platform, we were not even in the top 20 for the state,” Long recalls.
When the management team for UW Credit Union was performing its due diligence in 2007, the CU looked at numerous indirect lending solutions. Long says one of the clinching factors in the decision to go with CUDL was the AutoSMART auto-shopping feature.
“We liked AutoSMART because it linked our members with dealers’ inventory online,” he explained. “We had no inventory online, and we had no online pricing tools. We also appreciated the philosophy of CUDL’s pricing—we only have to pay for booked deals. We are trying to close loans, not collect applications.”
Implementing the Right Technology
The fact that CU Direct is a credit union service organization was an “added benefit” in the decision-making process, Long says, but the key was what the company brought to the marketplace. “We wanted the technology to be strong and drive value for our members. CU Direct’s technology allowed us to integrate with our loan origination system so we could decision loans directly in our LOS.”
Long notes the credit union’s frontline employees find CUDL simple to use, because the integration with the current loan origination system is efficient.
“Our teams are able to work in the same platforms they work in every day with other types of loans,” he says. “CUDL and Lending 360 work behind the scenes and integrate with the systems the dealers use. We have been able to integrate everything seamlessly.”
Getting Serious About Indirect Lending
UW CU enjoyed years of relative success with the CUDL platform, but Long says its indirect lending program recently kicked into another gear.
“As we became more serious in 2017, we hired dealer relationship managers,” he says. “Now we have three dealer relationship managers and an indirect sales manager whose job is to nurture relationships with dealers.”
In addition, the CU went from one indirect underwriter to four and one indirect processer to four. Thanks in no small part to these staffing changes, underwriting time decreased from 17 minutes to just seven minutes.
The other big change was in loan dollars: In 2016, UW CU booked $88.5 million in indirect loans. In 2017, that figure jumped to $181.5 million, an increase of 206 percent. Due to this notable success, the CU was named a 2018 CU Direct Best Practices winner.
Looking back at 11 years on the CUDL platform, Long says that many of UW CU’s original goals have been met—or exceeded.
“When we started, we wanted to make it easier for our own members to finance their vehicles with us. But as we realized dealers were trying to finance non-members, we expanded and we exceeded our goals each year,” he says. “Through our partnership with CU Direct, we have become a very major indirect lending player in Wisconsin and in Dane County. It has greatly improved our reputation in the dealer network as a real player. Sometimes they see credit unions as going in and out of indirect lending. We have been in it for years, and we provide their customers with great rates and great service.”
One “nice surprise” from this growth is that UW CU has been able to convert a good percentage of these new indirect members into full members, Long adds.
“After seeing the success we were having with dealers and the dealers asking us to approve loans from non-members, we became more comfortable with working with non-members. There was a lot of skepticism internally at first, but our strategy is not just to have an auto loan on the books for 24 months—we want to grow our membership.”
Long explains that the credit union has been successful converting these indirect members through outbound calling, usually offering another loan or a credit card. “If we are successful in getting them to convert a loan, we often are able to get them to make us their full-blown primary financial institution by bringing over their checking account,” he says. “We are generally successful in closing additional business 30 percent of the time. Over the last 24 months, once we began focusing more on CUDL as an acquisition strategy, we have seen a 300 percent increase in business.”cues icon
Bill Meyer is the PR and content manager for CUES Supplier member CU Direct, Ontario, California, a CUSO that helps credit unions deliver the lending solutions, products and features that meet the demands of today’s members—from leading-edge mobile technology to powerful, configurable lending platforms, analytics and reporting, auto-buying tools, retail lending solutions and more.
