“Members want to know there’s a human being behind that application.” That’s how Mary Kay Theriault, Director of Product Management for Mortgage at Finastra, describes the challenge facing credit unions today. It’s a simple statement that captures a major industry tension: finding balance between digital-first convenience and the personal connection that defines the credit union difference.
In her conversation with Sarah Snell Cooke on The Credit Union Connection, Mary Kay explores what it takes to deliver both speed and sincerity in the mortgage experience. As she explains, the key isn’t choosing between technology and people but creating a partnership where each strengthens the other.
Throughout the interview, Mary Kay returns to one theme: simplicity. In an industry filled with complexity, she believes the best technology empowers instead of overwhelming. Her approach focuses on practical outcomes such as fewer abandoned applications, faster processing, and happier members who feel supported rather than replaced by digital tools. She highlights Finastra’s “no code, low code” approach as a way for credit unions to implement systems quickly without relying on large IT teams, keeping the process manageable and adaptable.
What stands out most is her focus on meeting members “where they want to be met.” For some, that means a fully digital application completed on a weekend. For others, it’s a face-to-face conversation with a loan officer. Offering both, she notes, is what allows credit unions to compete with larger lenders that may have broader reach but often lack personal service.
Later in the discussion, Mary Kay offers insight into how automation and AI can enhance the lending process. She describes how new tools can check documents and flag inconsistencies before processors ever touch them. The technology might be complex, but the result is deeply human: less frustration, faster approvals, and more time for staff to guide members through meaningful financial decisions.
When Sarah asks where credit unions should begin, Mary Kay’s advice is simple. Start small. Even launching a basic online mortgage application can help retain members who might otherwise look elsewhere. From there, grow intentionally by adding features and integrations that fit each credit union’s specific goals.
It’s a conversation that shows what progress can look like in practice: technology that enhances, rather than replaces, the heart of credit union service.
NOTE: The following transcript is automated with AI. No, it didn’t replace someone’s job.
Sarah Cooke
Then I’ll do a quick intro and write to you. Okay, alrighty, hello and welcome everybody. My name is Sarah Snell Cooke. I am, of course, your host today at The Credit Union Connection. I am here with Mary Kay Theriault, welcome.
Mary Kay Theriault
Thank you.
Sarah Cooke
Thank you. Mary Kay is the Director of Product Management at of mortgage at Finastra, company, a lot of our credit EMP audience will have heard of can you do a little bit of an more introduction on yourself and your role in the company?
Mary Kay Theriault
Yeah, so I’ve been in the mortgage industry over 30 years. I’m dating myself, and I’ve been in the last 26 years in the technology space. So I was part of the original team that built out mortgage bot to use as ourselves when we are a bank holding company in Wisconsin. We spun off to our own company and were purchased a couple times and now owned by Finastra. So I still run the mortgage product, so I have the point of sale underneath me, along with mortgage bot.
Sarah Cooke
All right, yeah, lots of good stuff there. Glad you made it through ownerships. I understand that. So one of the issues in modern financial services, and particularly for credit unions, is finding the right balance between communication at scale while also maintaining those real human interactions while they’re, you know, with their members, when they have the opportunity to have some time with their members. So what are your thoughts on that, and how can the credit union, credit union identify that line, that line for itself.
Mary Kay Theriault
So I think, you know, one of the main things is really keeping the interaction with your the members, you know, members want to be able online, Digital First is really where we’re going in the industry, but keeping that interaction with those members after the fact you know they apply. They may apply online, but really keeping that dialog open letting them know there is a human being behind that application. So you have to balance it between doing online texting and emails, and also that open communication so they know there is that human being processing their loan.
Sarah Cooke
Yeah, some of the AI text bots have gotten pretty good. Yeah, it’s good to see, you know, having a human face behind it for sure, especially like you said in credit union land. So modern member centric banking, particularly with mortgage applications, can be challenging because they take forever, or can, and credit unions are working toward adding that, you know, the modern services, they’re finally, I think, you know, ready to move forward. And some definitely are, and the delivery systems for new business and loyal and driving loyalty as well. And but how can credit unions really emphasize that while still keeping up with as much technology as possible to create the efficiencies they need?
Mary Kay Theriault
Yeah, I think one of the things we always tell our customers is make sure that you’re meeting the customers where they want to be met. So having that online channel so that they can see your programs, they can see your rates. They can even see your fees. And then, if they want to do that online application, they can, but you can also have that in branch opportunity along with a loan officer. So have the three different levels. So you can meet your member where they want to be met. Some will start online, do their research, you know, see what your rates are, and then they’ll reach out by phone to that loan officer. Others, they don’t want to call that a loan officer. They just want to do it themselves, and then have that online approval at the end of the application. So you’re capturing that member right away, and they’re not going to go look somewhere else. We think that’s really important on the point of sale, is to really capture that member so they stay with you. If they don’t see your you, they you’re have products online. They may go look somewhere else. They may, you know, hear of the bigger giants in the industry, and go check out one of those, because they hear them in the media. And if they don’t see your information online, they’re going to try to go elsewhere.
Sarah Cooke
Yes, for sure, I think the website is the new not only a billboard, if you will, but now it’s I think credit unions are looking more toward using it to convert as well, while still maintaining the human touch that they’re known for. And so where do they? Where should curtains start? How do they go about leveling that playing field between the big guys that you mentioned?
Mary Kay Theriault
Yeah, I think it’s really looking for that technology provider that brings you what you need, but not adding that layer of complexity. Yeah. So one of the things we strive for here is simplicity. We are. We call it no code, low code. You can set us up without having an IT department. You don’t need a programmer to go and do any special coding. So really bringing that simplicity ease of implementation is the start. So who can you implement easily with without doing a lot of customization. We call it configuration here at Finastra, so you can configure your own products, your own fees, your own text so it is you talking to your members. So it is all configurable. Then you also want to look for those integrations. So who has a lot of integrations to the different providers out there? Because the more streamlined you can make that application, the more likely you’re going to capture it. So things like asset verification, income verification, online approvals with Frannie Mae and Freddie Mac, because we know that borrower is looking for that online approval so that they can, if it, if it’s a pre approval, they may be wanting to apply on Saturday. And if you have that online approval, then they have that approval, and they can go buy that house or put that offer in on that house they want to on the weekend when maybe your loan officers aren’t available. So really looking for somebody who has that full digital experience, but then also provides you with all the tools on the back end to process that loan efficiently. One of the things we have added within our system is what we call workflow automation. So taking documents that processor receives, putting them in through an OCR and data extraction, and then comparing it to the rules out there that the GSEs have provided so that we can pre process that loan, cutting down, we say, about three to four hours on processing time of every loan application. So really bringing in those efficiencies on the back end so that you can close those loans quickly. So not only do you want to, you know, set up easily when you’re doing an implementation, but then also bringing in those efficiencies in the Los for processing those loans.
Sarah Cooke
Yeah. And you don’t want to go through the whole process and, like as a human and then you get to the end and you want some the borrower to sign in, it’s like, oh, well, line l2, five was not filled out or whatever, right certainly cuts out the human error aspect too, which I’m sure saves time also. And so how can they best judge the fintechs that they’re evaluating in this area. I mean, you touched on a little bit as far as, like an all in one but what are some of the best characteristics that they should be looking the cranes should be looking for.
Mary Kay Theriault
Member experience. Number one is, what is on the point of sale? What is your member experience? Because your member is going to remember, if they didn’t have a good experience, you know, they’re not, they don’t usually remember, Oh, wow, that that’s that site wowed me, but they did not have a good experience. So really looking first and foremost on the point of sales side is, what is the member experience? What is the path they’re taken through? How easy is it to use and how friendly is it? We don’t want the member to get frustrated halfway through and then they bail out, right? So really look at that member experience, and then on the backside is how efficient can they make you? So as mortgage rates hopefully decrease and we get back into a refi market. You don’t have to add staff to process more loans. How efficient can your processors and loan officers and underwriters be within the system to quickly close loans without getting any buybacks from a GSC if you’re selling them online?
Sarah Cooke
Yeah, yeah. And actually, I want to dig a little deeper into the something you mentioned there about the refi is coming up with the interest rates dropping. And you know, I’m sure there’ll be plenty of people reinvesting that back into their homes because they can’t afford the other homes that they would right. Where do you what do you see for the market, the mortgage market, in the next year or so?
Mary Kay Theriault
Oh, I wish I had a crystal ball. I wish I could tell that we’re going to, you know, that rates are going to drop and we’re going to get back into that refi market we did see recently with some decrease in rates, a little uptick in applications. So that’s a good sign. You know, if you listen to the predictors, they’re saying they’re going to come back down. I don’t think we’re ever going to see in my lifetime, probably the two and 3% we saw back in 2020 I don’t I just don’t see us getting back there. Hopefully we’ll get down back into the fours and fives. Maybe four is probably stretching it. But I think even if we get into the fives even higher. Fives will get into a little bit of a refi market again from those customers who closed last year in the sevens. Yeah.
Sarah Cooke
Tell me about it. Yeah. Bought a house last year too. So, you know, speed obviously being part of being member centric, and you talked about it a couple times. But especially in the mortgage field, there’s hundreds of papers and pages to sign off and go through. And so how are you speaking? You mentioned you save three or four hours? Can you go a little more detail about how credit unions can say, speed up this process?
Mary Kay Theriault
Yeah, so one of the things that we do online is at the end of the application, we’re going to ask the borrower for the documents that we need in order to process their loan. So right at the time of application, if you tell me you’re employed, I need your W twos for the last two years, and I need your pay stub. If you need funds to close, I need your bank statements. So we’re going to provide you a customized list of those documents the member needs to provide. We’re also going to add in some AI in there an AI agent to actually look at those documents make sure they are what you told us they are. So if I asked you for a w2 because you told me you’re employed, but you gave me a 1099 the agentic agent will come back and ask you, are you sure you’re employed, or maybe self employed, because you gave me a 1099, so we’re going to hold do that right away at the time of application, so that when that processor gets those documents in, they already know they’re good documents, or as good as we can be. And then from there, we’re going to actually put them, once they’re in the Los put them through a workflow, what we call workflow automation, where we read and extract the data and compare it to what the borrower said. So if the member told us they’re they were employed at finastra LLC, but it’s really finastra Corporation, our system will actually extract that data, compare it and say you might want to just update this. And with a click of a button, we’re going to update the system so the processor doesn’t have to do what we call stare and compare today. They’re going to go look at that w2 they’re going to look at what’s in the system. They’re going to stare it and go, oh yeah, it’s wrong. I got to go into the Los and change that we’re doing that for them cutting off. That’s where we’re going to save the three to four hours on every application by doing that all electronically or through AI. There’s AI in there, there’s machine OCR and machine learning in there. So we’re doing that all for them so that they can really then focus their time on those applications that they need to so the cookie cutter is going to go right through with some automation, and then those processors and loan officers can focus on those loans that are not the cookie cutters. They need a little more attention. They might need some guidance on how to go through and fix it so they do qualify. Do they need to pay off a loan in order to qualify? Do they need a gift for some more money so they can work on those loans that really need their attention and provide those members also with the end game of an approval.
Sarah Cooke
Yeah, and then you’re saving half a, you know, half a day, basically, that they can devote to other things, like really helping members that need it. How, how are you seeing those? I mean, do you find out how those hours are used by your clients after they save?
Mary Kay Theriault
We haven’t yet. We’ve just rolled, actually, are rolling this out. We have about 20 clients that are using it today and providing us feedback on how we can make it even better and more productive.
Sarah Cooke
Yeah, because I mean credit unions, they don’t, I mean their member, their employees are their members. So, you know, they don’t particularly, you know, laying them off is not something credit unions are particularly comfortable with so, you know, finding other things for them is always important, right? There are plenty of things to do.
Mary Kay Theriault
Yeah and our goal is that as production increases, they don’t have to go hire more employees. Yeah, keep the keep the staff that you have and make them productive, so that as things, as volume goes up, you don’t have to add more, because who wants to go through that cyclical higher layoff, higher you know, we’ve all been there. So this automation should help you keep the employees that you have, but not have to add because hopefully going online with a mortgage application will increase your volume as well, right?
Sarah Cooke
Yeah, and the employees aren’t staring like you’re, I forget what you staring compare. That seems like a tedious job.
Mary Kay Theriault
It is. I’ve been there I start, you know, I know, before I got into the technology world, I did manage a processing staff, and so I did help, you know, jump in and help. On those applications, and yeah, you’re staring at those W twos pay stubs, making sure they are who the borrower says they are. Everything you know the names are right, addresses are right, and this automation takes that away.
Sarah Cooke
Yeah, yeah. Awesome. Well, I always give my guests the final thoughts as we close out for our credit union audience, what do you want to leave? What thought Do you want to leave them with?
Mary Kay Theriault
Well, I think if you’re not, if a credit union is not online yet with a mortgage application, they want to get it, you know, they want to start tiptoeing into that space. Because if they’re not, their members are going to go look elsewhere. They’re going to think they’re not in the mortgage business because they’re not online. So at least start on the getting your information out there on a point of sale. And then you can always go into the add in the additional features functionality along the way. But having that application out there, even if it’s just the application, you maybe don’t want to put your rates out there yet. But start small, and increase as you get volume. We always say it only takes two new borrowers to apply to pay for the software. Everything else is, you know, you’re addressing your members that you already have, but you can do it pretty simply, and if you get one or two applications that you weren’t going to get before it pays
Sarah Cooke
for the system, right? Or ones that people don’t abandon. Arrangement, awesome. Well, thank you so much for your time and insight today. I appreciate Mary Kay.
Mary Kay Theriault
Thank you. Sarah. Was great chatting with you today.