ONTARIO, Calif. — CU Direct, a provider of lending, automotive and strategic solutions to the credit union industry headquartered here, on Wednesday said it has entered into a new agreement with Credit Union Leasing of America (CULA).
CU Direct will be leveraging San Diego-based CULA's technology through its CUDL Auto Lending Network to offer a consumer vehicle leasing option to credit unions and their members. The CUDL Network is the nation's largest credit union auto lending platform, with 1,100 credit unions and 11,400 auto dealers, CU Direct said.
The two parties said integrating CULA's leasing interface into CU Direct's CUDL Network provides interested credit unions a solution to capture member financing through the leasing channel.
"With the growing trend in consumer leasing at the dealership, accounting for slightly more than 31% of new-vehicle financing in the first three months of 2015, credit unions can now better serve their members," they said in a press release.
This is the second major announcement of 2015 for CU Direct. In May, the company
Extremely Excited' About Partnership
Greg Gandolfo, CULA's executive vice president, said Credit Union Leasing of America is, "Extremely excited about our partnership. Having CU Direct select us as their approved lease program vendor is a major milestone in our 27 year history."
CULA provides new and used indirect auto leasing and balloon loan services to consumer lenders, including credit unions. It has served CUs engaged in indirect lending and business lending since 1988.
Chris Harper, CU Direct's national director, strategic alliances, said the company looks forward to working with CULA, "and to providing our credit unions with a leasing solution that will help them to better serve their members and increase loan opportunities. Vehicle leasing continues to be an area of lending that credit unions are looking at to generate loans."
CU Direct said its credit unions funded more than 1 million loans through the CUDL lending platform, generating $22 billion in credit union auto loans in 2014. The company said it has helped its credit unions increase loan growth 17% thus far in 2015, and as a result CU Direct credit unions, as an aggregate, are the third-largest auto lender in the nation.
David Brand, director of loan origination at $4.2 billion Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union, Poughkeepsie, N.Y., said, "Through HVFCU's partnership with CULA, the credit union has increased local vehicle market share penetration and added a significant amount of new loan volume to our portfolio. In addition, working with CULA has expanded our ability to meet the needs of our membership, better positioning the credit union to retain current members and attract new ones."
For more info:
