SAN DIEGO – In his opening remarks at CU Direct DRiVE 16 Tuesday afternoon, CU Direct President/CEO Tony Boutelle (pictured) named growing competition from fintech start-ups as the motivation for the CUSO's latest efforts to help credit unions improve lending efficiency and lending experiences for members.
"There are tons of companies trying to disrupt your business, to steal your members and give them a loan," Boutelle told the audience of credit union lending and marketing executives. "In the end it's just a loan, but what they're doing is trying to improve the experience."
This year, the Ontario, Calif.-based CU Direct plans to make connections with as many lending industry players as possible and deliver technology solutions that allow credit unions to meet modern consumer needs, Boutelle said. He also announced a new partnership with the St. Petersburg, Fla.-based payments CUSO PSCU – the details of which will be unveiled Wednesday – and the creation of a CU Direct innovation lab at an Orange County, Calif. facility, where the CUSO's technology teams will gather to test new concepts.
CU Direct also set a goal of funding $120 billion in loans through its CUDL system this year, he said.
Boutelle emphasized speed as the key to success in lending, noting the credit union industry still has work to do in that area. Of the $27 billion in credit union auto loans CU Direct funded last year, only 7% of applications were approved instantly and 40% took three hours or longer to approve, he said.
"Speed does matter, and if you focus on that as the most important metric in your organization and get to 'yes' faster, you will fund a lot more loans and a lot of other good things will follow that you need to focus on," he said.
DRiVE 16 runs through Wednesday at the Marriott Marquis in San Diego.
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Natasha Chilingerian
Natasha Chilingerian has been immersed in the credit union industry for over a decade. She first joined CU Times in 2011 as a freelance writer, and following a two-year hiatus from 2013-2015, during which time she served as a communications specialist for Xceed Financial Credit Union (now Kinecta Federal Credit Union), she re-joined the CU Times team full-time as managing editor. She was promoted to executive editor in 2019. In the earlier days of her career, Chilingerian focused on news and lifestyle journalism, serving as a writer and editor for numerous regional publications in Oregon, Louisiana, South Carolina and the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition, she holds experience in marketing copywriting for companies in the finance and technology space. At CU Times, she covers People and Community news, cybersecurity, fintech partnerships, marketing, workplace culture, leadership, DEI, branch strategies, digital banking and more. She currently works remotely and splits her time between Southern California and Portland, Ore.
