The $4.3 billion, 430,000-member PSECU in Harrisburg, Pa. has adopted Akcelerant's loan origination framework, executives at the company and credit union announced.

Temenos, a financial services software company based in Geneva, Switzerland, purchased Akcelerant in February 2015. The firm first made its name by writing software to automate and streamline collection operations.

Akcelerant Founder and CEO Jay Mossman said PSECU is the 10th U.S. credit union to sign on with the firm's loan origination software; more than 500 cooperatives, 60% of which held more than $1 billion in assets, have used its collections software.

Mossman said he founded the company in 2000 and began developing loan origination software during the depths of the Great Recession in 2008 and 2009. 

“We really did that as a hedge,” Mossman explained. “When the economy tanked obviously our business picked up. Many credit unions needed collections software then. However, we expected the downturn would not last forever and we needed something to offer when the economy came back and credit unions needed to lend again.”

PSECU was one of those credit unions, Mossman said. Originally a user of its collections product, the credit union had been pleased enough to choose Akcelerant for its lending platform too, Mossman added.

He also explained that moving from collecting on delinquent loans to originating new ones, from the point of view of software writers, isn't that different. The strength of Akcelerant's collection software was in its customizable business rules, which allowed credit unions much leeway when structuring their collections operations, Mossman explained. Those business rules had been tailored to fit lending systems, he added.

“Akcelerant has once again produced a high-caliber software product, and over the last 15 years, we have seen them rise to meet and surpass expectations from their customers,” PSECU Assistant Vice President of Lending Andrew Coy stated.

“PSECU's main focus is to provide an exceptional member experience, so we were impressed with the Framework loan origination solution's endless ability to customize both the user and member experience,” he added. “Our strong history with Akcelerant, as well as the extensibility of their platform, gave us confidence in expanding our collaboration. We look forward to making use of all of the flexible and integrated functionality the software has to offer.”