5 trends shaping the future of member business lending

Leveraging these advancements can strengthen the relationship between CU and borrower.

Many credit unions prioritize the digital optimization of their retail experience, but they cannot disregard the channels critical to business member engagement—particularly member business lending. As the CU industry continues to advance its share of the commercial loan market, there are five emerging trends to watch that are likely to reshape member business lending in the next year. While these trends are driven by technology, their impact goes beyond simply offering more agile, efficient processes and extends to actually bettering the communication and relationships between lender and member.

The Death of Data Silos
Credit unions often have all of the information needed for member business lending but fall short in the organization and mining of this data, creating inefficiencies and roadblocks in their back office. Traditionally, the data used to originate, book and monitor commercial loan activity is placed in separate silos—stored partly in the loan origination system, while other pieces are housed everywhere from the core, a document platform, financial spreadsheet software or Excel. This process leaves credit unions with a high degree of manual work and greater probability of human error. Fortunately, today’s advancements in application program interfaces can reduce the barriers between those disparate silos, creating a more comprehensive and intuitive integration of the data. A well-designed integration strategy not only enables credit unions to declutter member data, but also allows CUs to better anticipate members’ financial needs through more efficient and simplified communication, ultimately improving the entire loan process.

 

continue reading »