Lending Perspectives: New Year’s resolutions for lending leaders
It’s a perfect time to commit to the basic tenets of your credit union’s programs, stay tuned in to market trends and perfect your operational processes.
Being a leader in lending over the last two years has made me curse the old Chinese proverb, “May you live in interesting times.” The last two years have been way too interesting for me, including COVID-19 financial assistance for our members, runaway mortgage volume, declining auto loan volume, not to mention the pace of change in member demand for digital lending.
A new year is a perfect time to start with lending resolutions as well as those for personal purposes—except that unlike our personal resolutions which often fall by the wayside by mid-February, these resolutions should keep us busy all 365 days this year.
Work the Model
When I say model, I really mean your credit union’s lending business model. Often, lending is just trying to keep its head above water. Either you have more loans than you can handle (like mortgages since COVID-19 hit) or you’re scrambling to find more business. Don’t fall into the trap of finding the easy path to more loans, since the easy path often includes relaxing credit standards and giving away loans through rate.
continue reading »
