Meet The Finalists For The 2018 Innovation Series

The 2018 Innovation Series presented by CreditUnions.com shows readers what cutting-edge suppliers are doing for the market.

Throughout the year, Callahan & Associates hosts roundtables with leading credit union executives. These leaders generously share their insights about the challenges and opportunities they face within their own shops and specialties.

CreditUnions.com talks in-depth with credit unions about many success stories gathered from roundtables and shares them here for others to read. But roundtable conversations frequently turn to the suppliers that empower today’s credit unions to achieve more for members. How do we tell these stories?

Enter the 2018 Innovation Series presented by CreditUnions.com. 

This first-ever series for CreditUnions.com encourages leading suppliers from across the credit union space to talk-up, tout, promote, and pitch a cutting-edge solution that readers will not want to operate without. We've solicited applications, culled through the impressive solutions, and are offering eight finalists in the categories of lending and mobile.

Their products push out the leading edge in areas such as loan participations and payday lending alternatives, customizable video apps, origination systems and onboarding, and even mobile personal teller machines.

Here are their stories:

BenMorales_QCash

Ben Morales, CEO, QCash Financial

(Olympia, WA)

MOBILE

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Gene Pranger_POPin

Gene Pranger, CEO, POPin Video Banking Collaboration

(Sandy, UT)

MOBILE

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Bill_Bodin_Kony

Bill Bodin, CTO, Kony Inc.

(Austin, TX)

MOBILE

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Jeff Shood_Intuvo

Jeff Shood, CEO/Founder, Intuvo

(Scotts Valley, CA) 

MOBILE

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Mike Pecen_Experian

Mike Pecen, Head of Product, Transaction Services, Experian

(Costa Mesa, CA)

LENDING

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Andrew Turner_LoanStar Technologies

Andrew Turner, CEO, LoanStar Technologies

(Conshohocken, PA)

LENDING

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Kendra Tolley_nCino

Kendra Tolley, Head of Retail Product, nCino

(Wilmington, NC)

LENDING

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Ian Lampl_LoanStreet

Ian Lampl, CEO, LoanStreet

(New York, NY)

LENDING

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Watch finalists from the 2018 Innovation Series presented by CreditUnions.com pitch their cutting-edge solutions in lending and mobile. Then vote for the best of the best.

Register today.

 

 


MOBILE — QCash

Describe your innovation.

Ben Morales: QCash is a digital lending platform that can originate, underwrite, and fully fund short-term, small-dollar loans through any credit union’s mobile app or website.

Ben Morales, CEO, QCash Financial

We provide credit unions the ability to leverage the mobile channel to solve members’ needs, including pulling them back from predatory lenders. To do that, you must be as fast and efficient as those lenders. Now, any credit union can be that fast and efficient — and with the credit union difference.

What opportunity or challenge does your innovation address?

BM: QCash addresses the need for instant access to funds through small-dollar, short-term credit. Many people can’t go to a branch and get a traditional loan without waiting a day or two. We figured out a way to provide instant liquidity for many of these borrowers.

We solved the problem of accessibility. Lenders can submit funds the same day on their terms. Credit unions using QCash don’t have to pull credit reports, either. They can use the relationship data already in their systems.

How does this innovation increase member value?

BM: In three ways. First, we pull members back into the cooperative space from the predatory lending space. That speaks to the credit union mission.

Second, we provide products and services that members want and need, or they wouldn’t be going to these types of lenders in the first place.

Third, QCash provides a sustainable, long-term revenue stream that the credit union then uses to better serve all its members.

What differentiates your innovation from competitors?

BM: We don’t have any credit union competitors, really. There are credit unions doing small-dollar lending, of course, but not through the mobile channel and not at the speed we do it. We’re a wholly owned CUSO of Washington State Employees Credit Union, and nine credit unions now use QCash, making it available to 1.2 million members across the country.

Our real competitor is payday lenders. And the difference is approximately 400% APR. Our credit unions can configure QCash with any rates or fees they want to cover their losses, mitigate their risks, and still make money for the credit union while saving those borrowers a ton of money compared to what they would be paying payday lenders.

Watch finalists from the 2018 Innovation Series presented by CreditUnions.com pitch their cutting-edge solutions in lending and mobile. Then vote for the best of the best.

Register today.

 


MOBILE — POPin Video Banking

Describe your innovation.

GP: POPin Video Banking provides face-to-face video with simultaneous document collaboration that enables members to complete nearly all banking needs via the web, mobile, or branch-based video.

Gene Pranger, CEO, POPin Video Banking Collaboration

This all happens in real time — from the beginning to the end, including validations and even electronic signatures — and in a collaborative, face-to-face environment.

What opportunity or challenge does your innovation address?

GP: We’re creating a new dynamic that allows financial institutions to overcome brick-and-mortar as a barrier to solving people’s problems.

Now, a credit union person can talk to anyone at any time anywhere, whether they're in member services, mortgages, or investment services. This is a cloud-based service, so it works on any device and through any channel, including in a branch if that’s what's needed for that interaction.

How does this innovation increase member value?

GP: The core of our solution is how it strengthens the relationship between the financial institution and the member. It offers a new level of stickiness through its ability to increase the credit union’s ability to serve as a valuable resource to the member through all kinds of transactions and issues.

Now, instead of going into a branch to talk to a live person, a member can do it on a phone or computer. It also offers a whole new level of fraud protection, since the member is right there in front of you, on the screen.

What differentiates your innovation from competitors?

GP: There are products out there that provide P2P video, including Cisco, but not with this kind of collaboration.

POPin provides face-to-face contact as well as access to documentation, ID validation, signatures, and nearly anything you can do face-to-face in a branch. Your whole workflow to solve a member’s problem or provide a service can be done right there, in real time.

Watch finalists from the 2018 Innovation Series presented by CreditUnions.com pitch their cutting-edge solutions in lending and mobile. Then vote for the best of the best.

Register today.

 


MOBILE — Kony

Describe your innovation.

Bill Bodin: We provide an out-of-the-box, ready-to-run retail banking mobile app that comes with the common set of functionalities that all members want plus a mix of advanced features.

Bill Bodin, CTO, Kony Inc.

We can integrate with all core and other processing platforms by extracting data from the back end to present the ideal member experience that credit unions want for their members.

What opportunity or challenge does your innovation address?

BB: We talk to a lot of credit unions and consistently hear about how the first- and second-generation mobile solutions they’re using can’t really talk to their core banking, payment processing, and CRM solutions. They can’t access and present the data as it sits in their systems of record.

Kony takes an outside-in, instead of inside-out, approach. We let you determine first the member experience you want to provide and then we create the path you need to provide that member journey.

How does this innovation increase member value?

BB: Members can now get a new product or service very quickly because credit unions don't have to pay their provider a large fee for a one-off or wait 12 months until their provider can do it for all its clients.

Because so much is taken care of on the back end, credit unions have much more control over their own mobile road map and the member journey they provide.

What differentiates your innovation from competitors?

BB: Kony has essentially two types of competitors. The first are those traditional providers of pre-packaged, out-of-the-box banking app ready to be wired in. They provide credit unions little to no influence over the road map for new products and services. You’re handcuffed to that provider.

The other competitors are those that build custom apps from the ground up that give the credit union complete control of the member experience. The problem there, of course, is that they take a lot of time and they cost a lot of money.

We combine the best of both worlds, with an out-of-the-box package that a credit union can quickly customize with features that are important to its member base.

Watch finalists from the 2018 Innovation Series presented by CreditUnions.com pitch their cutting-edge solutions in lending and mobile. Then vote for the best of the best.

Register today.

 


MOBILE — Intuvo

Describe your innovation.

Jeff Shood: Mortgage Passport is a custom-branded mobile app for credit unions, as well as a continuation of Intuvo’s mission for credit unions, which is to help them understand the individual needs of their members and respond with the right messaging at the right time. 52% of all home searches start on a mobile device now. That’s up from 30-something percent just three years ago. As such, from the financing side, credit unions are feeling the need to meet members on their mobile devices.

Jeff Shood, CEO/Founder, Intuvo

The app helps members understand how the mortgage process works and allows them to shop products. We have built in complex calculators that allow members to run various scenarios. For instance, if the member knows they are only going to be in a house for six to seven years, they can compare a 30-year-fixed loan versus a 10-1 ARM loan across different interest rate scenarios and determine the better move for themselves. They can take those calculations and communicate with a loan officer at a credit union when needed. The app is designed as a communication portal that allows a member to deal with the process when and how they want while still be backed by an expert loan officer at the credit union.

What opportunity or challenge does your innovation address?

JS: Members are looking to do their mortgage processes online and on their phone. We’re addressing the need to meet the member where and how they want to be met. This is something the larger banks have started to offer, and so it gets the credit unions on that same playing field.

How does this innovation increase member value?

JS: One, we are taking a complicated process and making it easier. I just personally went through a purchase and we were outbid five times on different homes before we bought a house.

Two, we’re reducing anxiety created during the process by sending automated push notifications anytime something changes on their mortgage, like when documents are sent to the title company or when the appraisal comes in.

Three, we are freeing the loan officer to be more consultative through the buying process. They no longer need to give status updates to the real estate agent, have the real estate agent give these to the borrower, or have the borrower call in and leave voicemails trying to see what’s going on.

What differentiates your innovation from competitors?

JS: First, this is just a component of Intuvo’s overall marketing automation and CRM platform for the entire credit union. We can leverage all the information and interaction happening on the mobile app for the credit union's overall communication strategy. For instance, if a member closes a mortgage and is eligible now for an auto loan, the credit union can immediately cross-sell automatically via some emails and tasks created for the loan officer to offer that auto loan in that point in time. On the other hand, if the member is a new indirect member that could save money by refinancing their mortgage, they will be prompted to download the app and see what their options are.

Second, the app integrates directly into the systems financial institutions already have. It works with all the major loan origination systems so there’s no need to make major changes. It is plug and play.

Watch finalists from the 2018 Innovation Series presented by CreditUnions.com pitch their cutting-edge solutions in lending and mobile. Then vote for the best of the best.

Register today.

 


LENDING — Experian

Describe your innovation.

Mike Pecen: People think of the credit bureaus today as furnishers of data. A consumer gets a loan at a credit union or bank, and if they pay that loan on time, that information is transmitted to a credit bureau like Experian, which aggregates information across financial institutions. But that data is furnished to us.

Mike Pecen, Head of Product, Transaction Services, Experian

Our innovation, Account Aggregation, aggregates financial data from thousands of financial institutions. But rather than it being furnished, that consumer is front-and-center and provides their consent and credentials. Only when that happens is their data pulled from financial institutions in real-time. It provides the opportunity to engage consumers in ways that financial institutions haven’t done before.

What opportunity or challenge does your innovation address?

MP: I’ll use mortgage as an example. In mortgage, we talk about 70 by 70 by 7,000. It’s a 70-minute application, it’s a 70-day process to close that loan, and it’s a $7,000 process for the lender to complete the loan file. That is a lot of time and cost. We have an opportunity to reduce that. Verifying someone’s income and assets takes, on average, five days, and the average daily cost to close a loan is $126 per day. By digitally verifying a consumer’s financial information in real-time, we can reduce the process by five days, which is a savings of more than $700 per application.

How does this innovation increase member value?

MP: If you are trying to attract new members today, whether millennials or Gen Z, they expect things to move quickly. A 70-day process? A 70-minute application? That’s not cutting it.

With this new capability, applicants can verify their income in two minutes. That saves them time and saves the credit union money. It also reduces fraud because this information comes directly from the financial institutions electronically so there is a chain of custody in how documents are shared.

What differentiates your innovation from competitors?

MP: Experian is the largest credit bureau in the United States and therefore fully FCRA compliant. So, in creating digital verification reports to be used in underwriting, they fall under the umbrella of FCRA data. We’re the first bureau to come to the market with this solution that is also FCRA compliant, so if any credit union has any problem where it needs to issue an adverse action, we support this in the same way we support disputes with credit reports.

Another differentiator is our expertise in analytics and scoring. We have deep expertise in developing data analytics, and now we’re providing scores that speak to the stability of someone’s income or cash flow, which is critical for cash flow underwriting.

Watch finalists from the 2018 Innovation Series presented by CreditUnions.com pitch their cutting-edge solutions in lending and mobile. Then vote for the best of the best.

Register today.

 


LENDING — LoanStar Technologies

Describe your innovation.

Andrew Turner: We extend the credit union brand and ability to lend at the point of sale through local merchants — think of contractors, local boat dealers, and local medical practitioners — that can offer installment loans from the credit union, through our technology, directly to the consumer.

Andrew Turner, CEO, LoanStar Technologies

What opportunity or challenge does your innovation address?

AT: It finds potential members where they are transacting. Not many people who walk into a branch looking for an installment product today are necessarily the people you want to lend to.

How does this innovation increase member value?

AT: It makes them available when they are needed most. Think of your HVAC unit or furnace. It goes out and it’s 99 degrees or 20 degrees and the contractor tells you, ‘I’m sorry. It’s not a $500 repair. It’s an $8,500 replacement. I can take cash or credit with an additional fee, or I can offer you a product from ABC credit union that is 4.9% over 60 months.’ Now, you’re either deepening a relationship with an existing member or potentially adding a new member because the contractor made that offer on your behalf.

On top of that, we enable the potential member to apply on their personal device. The contractor doesn’t necessarily need to take an application on behalf of the member. They can certainly do that, but we like to give them the option to fulfill their payment through the channel with which they are most comfortable.

What differentiates your innovation from competitors?

AT: We probably don’t have any competitors that work directly with credit unions. Our competitors at the point of sale are Wells Fargo the non-bank fintechs like Prosper or Lending Club.

What we do that is unique is help the credit union aggregate the merchants in addition to the consumers. We will go out and sell on a private label capacity. We get the credit union the relationship and allow them to leverage that relationship into a new membership channel.

Watch finalists from the 2018 Innovation Series presented by CreditUnions.com pitch their cutting-edge solutions in lending and mobile. Then vote for the best of the best.

Register today.

 


LENDING — nCino

Describe your innovation.

Kendra Tolley, Head of Retail Product, nCino

Kendra Tolley: nCino’s Retail Sales & Service solution offers a flexible, mobile-enabled loan origination system that provides a means to originate, sell, and service retail and small business loans, all the while streamlining the retail operating process.

May 19, 2022

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