Brad Calhoun is all in on solar loans for homeowners.
"Residential solar is helping families save money on their monthly utility bills at a time when Americans are feeling pinched for pennies and expecting rocky financial waters ahead," Calhoun wrote in an
Calhoun is president and CEO of Teachers Federal Credit Union in Hauppauge, New York. Through a partnership with fintech GoodLeap, the education-focused credit union has made $650 million worth of solar loans. Calhoun has petitioned the National Credit Union Administration to extend an emergency rule it adopted in 2020 that allowed federally insured credit unions to offer and purchase 25-year solar loans. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, credit unions could only offer solar loans with terms up to 20 years.
Calhoun is less interested in reversing climate change than he is in members' financial wellness. He sees solar loans as a way to promote financial security and also contribute to a more sustainable future.
One way Calhoun innovates at his company is by forging partnerships with fintechs like GoodLeap. Other partners include Figure, Prosper and Splash Financial.
Calhoun has also championed the use of robotic process automation at Teachers. The credit union has introduced 40 bots that have saved the organization 106,000 working hours, he said, by streamlining operations and eradicating redundancies.
Experts within Teachers partnered with Infosys to deploy intelligent automation powered by SS&C Blue Prism. This partnership lets the credit union deploy digital workers (bots) across 16 business functions, including fraud detection, loan servicing, credit and risk management.
Robotic process automation bots or digital workers operate 24/7, can process millions of data points monthly and generate real-time monitoring and alerts to Teachers' financial crimes teams.
"The impact of intelligent automation digital workers is evident in the reduction of repetitive tasks, empowering our teammates to focus on efforts that contribute to the member experience," Calhoun said. "With digital workers processing millions of clicks, tasks are executed swiftly and accurately, leading to significant time savings." Its use of RPA has enabled Teachers to process loan applications and critical business matters 50% faster, enhancing operational efficiency and member satisfaction, he said.
All told, the credit union estimates that eight million clicks have been completed by digital workers to fulfill various automated tasks, 13,250 days have been given back to the business (based on 106,000 hours) and member transactions are processed in half the time.
Teachers Federal Credit Union is one of the largest credit unions in the U.S. with 460,000 members and $9.7 billion in assets. It has an open charter that allows anyone across the country to become a member. In 2023, the credit union set up its first branch outside of New York state by opening a retail location in Tampa, Florida.
