By Ryan Coleman, Business Development Manager, Consumer Finance, Equifax® Workforce Solutions
Credit union members expect rapid interactions and transactions in all aspects of their lives—and that includes quick lending decisions.
The outdated, paper-based lending process isn’t fast enough to keep pace with members’ expectations, and slow decisioning can be a big problem for member retention. The solution is automated technology that enables rapid decisioning.
How Credit Unions Can Use Technology To Improve the Lending Process
Technology has given credit unions the ability to make lending decisions faster and more efficiently by leveraging relevant data at every stage of the lending process. For example, implementing digital verifications, such as verification of income and employment (VOIE), is key to achieving more consistent, faster, and better-informed loan decisioning that can improve members’ experience, while also protecting the credit union from unnecessary risk.
VOIE helps streamline the lending process so credit unions can meet member expectations for speed. This reduces the potential loss of members to competing credit unions and can even result in membership growth due to decreased errors in loan repayment determinations.
By eliminating paper-based processes, credit unions can also reduce the potential for reliance on inflated borrower-reported income. Using digital VOIE during the application process can also help make data transfers safer and faster.
How Digital Verification of Income and Employment Works
When digital verification of income and employment is integrated into a credit union’s workflow, they can provide an encrypted and secure direct link to a database that transfers member data directly from employers and payroll providers. Credit unions may also be able to access VOIE data directly through their existing point-of-sale system.
Automated VOIE can enable credit unions to securely transfer data, collect more precise financial strength indicators, quickly make better-informed lending decisions, and perhaps see a rise in member application conversion rates.
In today’s competitive lending climate, VOIE implementation allows credit unions to better meet member expectations for quick lending decisions. Learn how your credit union can connect MeridianLink® Consumer to instant income and employment verification through The Work Number® by Equifax®.
Ryan Coleman leads business development for consumer finance and The Work Number® at Equifax® Workforce Solutions. Ryan has 20 years of experience in data and technology solutions for credit unions, banks, and other financial institutions.
