Customer Success Story
Associated Credit Union achieves 40% faster approval-to-funding time
How Associated Credit Union confidently increased instant approvals and accelerated funding
Headquarters: Norcross, GA
Branch locations: 18
Members: 165,000+
Managed assets: $2.56 Billion
The challenge
More digital volume, without compromising control
As digital application volume grew, Associated Credit Union needed to make faster lending decisions without compromising identity, fraud, or credit risk controls. Manual reviews slowed responses and created unnecessary work for staff, while members increasingly expected a faster, more seamless experience. Associated CU wanted to increase instant decisioning across consumer lending, including credit cards and indirect vehicle loans, while shortening the time from approval to funding. Automating routine decisions would allow its team to focus on the exceptions that require human judgment.
The solution
The solution: MeridianLink One
Associated Credit Union brought digital onboarding, lending, and funding together with MeridianLink. MeridianLink® Access, integrated with Socure and Plaid, streamlines identity verification and account funding. Reveal Pro consulting services helps the credit union design and optimize its instant decisioning strategies, while MeridianLink® Consumer powers the origination to put those strategies into action. For indirect lending, DealerTrack and RouteOne eContracting connect approval to funding without manual paperwork. And MeridianLink® Insight provides visibility into performance, helping the team continuously refine its strategies with data.
Why Associated selected MeridianLink
~40% faster from approval to funding, getting members their money sooner and creating a better borrower experience.
54% instant approvals across consumer lending, scaling faster decisions as application volume increases.
62% instant approvals for indirect vehicle loans, accelerating growth in a key lending channel.
The results
The result: Faster decisions. Faster funding. More growth.
Associated Credit Union is moving more lending decisions from manual review to instant approval, giving members faster answers and quicker access to their funds. More than half of consumer lending applications now receive an instant decision, while approval-to-funding times have dropped by nearly 40%.
In indirect lending, eContracting through DealerTrack and RouteOne eliminates paperwork between approval and funding, accelerating dealer payments and creating a faster path to grow the channel. Automated decisioning takes routine applications off staff’s plates, freeing them to focus on exceptions and higher-value decisions.
With MeridianLink Insight, Associated Credit Union can see what’s working, continuously sharpen its decisioning strategies, and scale a faster digital lending experience as volume grows.
