RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif.-Establishing a consistent lending experience across all delivery channels will help credit unions garner a bigger share of their members' loan business this year.
Mark Chatfield, COO of CO-OP Member Center, a wholly owned subsidiary of CO-OP Financial Services, told Credit Union Journal that more credit unions need to focus on loan delivery channels in 2012. "Most credit unions have a number of channels through which they offer loans, but the experience is not always consistent. It has to be. Across all their channels-mobile, online, in-branch, and indirect-the look and feel, the underwriting, the speed of decision etc. has to be the same. And, of course, the decision, the processing, and origination have to be quick."
If the credit union fails to deliver a consistent and speedy loan process, it risks losing loans to other lenders, Chatfield explained. "Take indirect, for example. You have a member sitting in the dealership who wants to use the credit union for the loan, but the dealer can't get a timely response from the credit union. That dealer will maneuver the member away from the credit union's financing to one of the captives."
Inconsistent lending experiences, whether they be around speed of processing or the loan decision itself create doubt in members' minds about the CU's ability to meet their loan needs. "That doubt leads members to make other choices than the credit union."
Chatfield noted that more of its CU clients last year made improvements in this area, turning for the first time to a lending origination system or upgrading their existing origination system. "We saw a number of credit unions coming up with a cure for some of these lending ills."
