Customer Success Story
Greater Iowa Credit Union Transforms Lending From Manual to Modern
How the Right Technology, Data, and Automation Drive Triple-Digit Results
Headquarters: Ames, IA
Branch locations: 9
Members: 36,000+
Managed assets: $665 million
The Challenge
Advancing Lending Processes to Better Serve Members
Greater Iowa Credit Union (GICU) is dedicated to delivering fast, accurate lending, and they embrace data to keep improving. However, outdated workflows were making this increasingly difficult. Manual processes were time-consuming and limited the credit union’s ability to scale and personalize the member experience. GICU knew it was time to upgrade its lending technology to support faster, more automated decisioning. So, they looked for a platform that aligned with their goals—driven by data and built for continuous improvement.
The Solution
MeridianLink DecisionLender + MeridianLink Consulting
GICU turned to MeridianLink® DecisionLender® 4 to create a seamless, consistent experience for staff and members. Since the team didn’t have full-time lending administrators, GICU also partnered with MeridianLink® Consulting’s Admin Pro service. This extra support helped them keep the decision engine up to date, manage High-Priced Mortgage Loan (HPML) rules for home equity products, roll out indirect deal rehash features, and improve debt protection options.
Why Greater Iowa Credit Union Selected MeridianLink DecisionLender 4 + MeridianLink Consulting
400%+ growth in direct vehicle loan automation, now surpassing a 35% automation rate.
500% increase in automated credit card decisions, rising to over 22%.
50% reduction in indirect loan filing time, dropping from 30+ minutes to just 14 minutes per loan.
The Results
Faster Decisions, Smarter Lending, and Happier Members
Since implementing DecisionLender, GICU has made lending faster and smoother for their team and members.
With MeridianLink’s advanced analytics, data integration, and robust reporting, GICU now has the insights they need to make better, more personalized lending decisions while keeping risk in check. By tapping into MeridianLink’s integration with Zest AI and getting support from Admin Pro, GICU fine-tuned their decision engine. Automated stipulations based on credit, loan type, and borrower data helped more applications move quickly to approval while maintaining decision accuracy and boosting auto-decision rates by over 250%—from under 9% to nearly 25%.
Automation also cut the time it takes to fund indirect loans in half. Tasks like member creation, loan booking, document processing, and system checks now happen faster and more reliably, trimming processing time from 30+ minutes down to just 14.
With operations running smoother than ever, Municipal Credit Union saw loan applications skyrocket by 42% and deposit applications rise nearly 6%, outperforming industry peers across the board. And with all that new volume, they didn’t just get more applications, they turned more of them into funded loans and opened accounts—driving a significant boost in conversion rates.
