TruHome Solutions, a mortgage CUSO headquartered in Lenexa, Kan., said it has now serviced more than $2 billion in credit union-originated mortgage loans.

The CUSO, owned by the 169,000-member, $1.9 billion CommunityAmerica Credit Union, also headquartered in Lenexa, and the 53,000-member $460 million Mazuma Credit Union in Kansas City, Mo., has roughly 90 participating credit unions since its founding seven years ago.

Many of the now participating credit unions had only moribund housing finance programs before they started working with TruHome or no housing finance program at all, according to Keith Varney, chief operations officer for the CUSO.  In many cases, the credit union had outsourced its housing finance operation to a mortgage broker or bank, Varney explained.

“We had one large credit union which had done that and then came to realize 'what are we doing, we send this business out the door and do not benefit from it'” Varney said. In other cases, of course, the mortgage brokers have just gone away in the mortgage crisis, he added.

Credit unions participate with TruHome at two levels. Credit unions in the CUSO's private label program work with the CUSO in almost an agent issuing relationship where the CUSO assumes different parts of the housing finance process in the credit union's name, but the participating credit union funds the loan. 

Credit unions in the CUSO's partner program, meanwhile, allow the CUSO to handle all parts of the housing finance process in its own name and TruHome funds the loan.

Although the CUSO launched the partner program for primarily smaller credit unions, Sherri Smith, TruHome's vice president for business development, said that larger-asset credit unions have also partnered with the CUSO to take advantage of the CUSO's ability to process and originate loans with government backing such as those with Federal Housing Administration insurance or Veterans Administration benefits.