How the right technology can help credit unions succeed

By Rich Gagliano, President, Black Knight Origination Technologies

Credit unions are known for taking care of their members by delivering a personalized approach. It’s why many people choose credit unions over other lending institutions.

But in today’s competitive landscape, credit unions need to think about how to expand member relationships – with a focus on making members for life. Many large banks and mortgage companies are focused on customer retention efforts by investing in technology, implementing processes and enhancing marketing strategies to deliver a more personalized, targeted approach to communications. Credit unions should consider how these types of operational updates can elevate their own competitiveness.

As originations remain low and the housing market continues to “reset,” the months ahead offer credit unions an ideal time to upgrade their technology and invest in their success. Step one of that process is evaluating whether your current loan origination system (LOS) offers the solutions your business needs.

Selecting the LOS that does it all

Selecting the right LOS can be a complex and lengthy process. After all, an investment as important as an LOS requires finding the right system and the right technology partner to back it up. The search often begins with important questions such as:

·       To what extent does the LOS automate processes?

·       Is it integrated with other solutions or providers?

·       Does it offer digital capabilities to improve the member experience?

·       What is the implementation timeline?

While there are numerous LOS options available on the market, the best LOS should meet several criteria. For example, to successfully drive operational performance in today’s highly competitive and fluid mortgage lending environment, credit unions need an LOS that is flexible, dynamic and offers cutting-edge capabilities, such as digital APIs and advanced automation. It’s also important for an LOS to provide seamless integrations with third-party applications, and for the provider to offer exceptional client support.

In addition to advanced features and functionality, the right LOS for credit unions will also look to the future and address the challenging requirements of growing a business. While a particular LOS may be adequate for the short term, it also needs the flexibility and scalability to accommodate future business growth. Why switch to one system now, only to find you need to do it again in just a few years?

And speaking of time, the right LOS wastes no time at all getting off the ground running. The new system needs to offer a fast implementation option and affordable pricing that makes sense for credit unions.

One of the most cost-effective and efficient ways to obtain a new LOS is to find one that is pre-configured based on industry requirements and common practices specific to credit unions. A pre-configured “off-the-shelf” LOS can provide a streamlined implementation timeline, as well as an affordable pricing model. And with a fast, pre-configured model, there’s no need to tie up resources for a long period of time or pay for months of provider implementation or professional service costs.

Transform Your Credit Union

Choosing an LOS that offers the state-of-the-art functionality can help credit unions succeed in today’s slower market, and in the future when loan volumes eventually return.

Also, you need to find one that can help automate “stare and compare” tasks that would take significantly longer to complete manually, while drastically reducing the chance of error. Intelligent, task-based workflow automation can drive the loan application and origination process, helping credit unions create new efficiencies and decrease overall loan turn times.

Finally, you need an LOS that can integrate with third-party providers. This not only includes seamless integrations with the LOS, but also a full suite of best-in-class origination solutions, enabling credit unions to pick and choose from a wide range of powerful digital capabilities specifically tailored to their needs. Critical integrations include a CRM that can help automate mortgage marketing, a digital point-of-sale solution that significantly enhances the loan process for loan officers and members, a powerful pricing and product engine, a fee service to help eliminate fee cures, eClose capabilities and so much more. For cost savings and efficiencies, select one with out-of-the-box configurations and the option to personalize workflows, so credit unions can leverage the LOS however they choose to best support their business needs.

Implementation, deployment and beyond

With the backing of Black Knight’s expert teams, our Empower® LOS can be implemented in a few months to avoid spending years waiting to reap the benefits of a new LOS investment. Black Knight also continually enhances Empower to help credit unions address current and future compliance requirements. On top of that, Empower includes lender-configurable, loan-level compliance testing embedded directly into the system’s workflow, so credit unions can perform state and federal loan-level compliance testing on each loan.

The Empower LOS is the future of digital and automated loan origination technology – and this next-generation technology is available right now. Contact Black Knight today, and see how Empower can create more members for life and drive your lending operations to the next level.