CU*Answers, parent company of Lender*VP, found that many of their clients were unable to work their recovery accounts. Utilizing their flagship CU*BASE^® core processing system, the experienced team at Lender*VP started handling this collection work for their client credit unions to recover some of that lost money and help their bottom line.

Lender*VP has grown from 1 employee in 2007 to 9 employees and handled over 90 thousand accounts and over 60 thousand calls for clients in 2011.

According to CU*Answers this initiative is to urge credit unions to better take advantage of its available loan pipeline opportunities. Some of the included fees that may be waived are the Experian AS Level 1 ID Verification ($0.75 per submitted name), the Prime Alliance loan application fee ($0.60) and the 247 Lender Decision Modeling fees ($0.50 per modeled app).

Restrictions do apply, for additional information, access the Lender*VP website: http://lendervp.com.

Held at corporate offices, CU*Answers stated that the Collections Roundtable provides credit unions an open forum discussion with experts and peers regarding issues as pertaining to collections laws, internal procedures, data processing strategies and other related topics. They added that each of these sessions are provided free for credit union’s utilizing the CU*BASE processing system.

In announcing its remaining 2011 calendar, CU*Answers state its Collections team of experts has nearly 7 decades of combined experience, having working in the consumer collection industry for both credit unions and other financial institutions. They added the team has experience is all virtually all collections matters, including repossessions, legal matters, bankruptcy, foreclosures and asset disposition.

CU*Answers also said this Collections Roundtable represents one of several on-going client participation Focus Groups for which clients interact directly with CU*Answers for helping design future software solutions. CU*Answers concluded that additional information for this Collections Roundtable may be found on its website located at www.cuanswers.com.

CU*Answers says these connections, now referred to as ‘Lender*Hub’ is the centralized middleware tool used to bring an application into CU*BASE from an outside trusted partner for credit union staff to work. The point of Lender*Hub is as a middleware to push loan applications into the CU*BASE loan queue and underwriting toolkit and to automate the flow into an aggregated toolkit for servicing, reporting, data mining and the big picture. Also stated, in a recent ninety day window, CU*BASE credit unions received 5,221 applications via Lender*Hub worth more than $152M in submitted applications.

Today CU*Answers has partner integrations for traditional indirect sources such as DealerTrack, RouteOne (to be completed later this year) and MeridianLink, and has integrated with Prime Alliance, the largest web-based mortgage application processing and origination CUSO in the marketplace.

For additional information, access the Lender*VP team’s website at: http://lendervp.com.

Held at the CU*Answers offices in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the Collections Roundtable is an open forum discussion on collections laws, internal procedures and CU*BASE processes. According to the CUSO, this provides a chance for staff to learn from network partners and is open to all staff, not limited to the Lending and Collections departments of credit unions.

To review Roundtable course details, access the registration page at http://cuanswers.com/education/syllabi/?course=SE.51.

According to Collections Manager Jerry Collins, “CU*Answers initiated a collections department in March of 2007 at the request of our clients to bring more attention to an often overlooked area, delinquent accounts. The continued success of this program shows the accuracy of our suspicion that this area needed more focus, and we’re happy that as a CUSO we can provide these services.”

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Massachusetts State Employees Credit Union in Boston recently converted to CU*Answers flagship data processing system, CU*BASE. They have also opted to utilize the early-stage collection services offered by the CUSO. CU*Answers credits the success of this program in the ability to use the same CU*BASE collection tools that the credit unions use themselves. This allows for seamless integration and communication between the credit union staff, and those of Lender*VP.

Lender*VP now has 11 clients in 6 states utilizing their services. According to Lender*VP, these services provide an economic way to getting a jump on the early stage delinquent members, without taking focus or resources away from a different department.

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CU*Answers and Lender*VP are leading a new initiative so that credit unions can begin offering Pay Day loans with very little start up time. MicroLender is an easy-to-use online loan servicing product designed to deliver a cost-effective CUSO delivered solution to meet the market driven need. By partnering with Prospera Credit Union, and their proven business model, GoodMoney, the two CUSO’s are able to offer branding and consulting services along with the origination tool.

According to CU*Answers, this is a win-win proposition for credit unions and their members, because credit unions can offer a more competitive fee structure on the loans while making it a profitable venture for the institution. Along with more reasonable rates, credit unions can help borrowers by providing access to financial education in their communities along with traditional financial services.

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Credit Unions have been dependent on their credit card vendors for years to set up and process skip-a-pay programs for a fee. Many of CU*Answers credit unions offer these programs to their member during the holiday season and summer months. Any of CU*Answers’ credit unions taking advantage of its online credit card services will now be able to schedule their own skip-a-pay programs without a related fee. The enhanced process will allow credit unions to select certain members that “qualify” for the skip-a-pay program based on credit union-defined qualified parameters.

According to CU*Answers, the more than fifty credit unions that use their online credit cards have a competitive advantage over the competition. The new enhancement, combined with monthly cost savings of over 50 percent and 2,996 fee free promotional buckets ensures that credit unions are prepared to handle the needs of all of their members.

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Though Prime Alliance is not a product of CU*Answers, the team of experts utilizing this product daily submit future need requests resulting from clients’ direct experience. This continued drive to enhance and improve member experience, is a primary reason for the CUSO being selected for this beta.

Some of the key functionalities in this release include:

• Interim Construction loans – The ability to support simple interest only construction loans for periods of 6, 9, 12, or 18 months.
• Credit Score in the Loan Consultant – The new enhancement will provide the ability to add a new question on the first page of the loan consultant where the borrower could either enter their credit score, or pick from a dropdown their opinion of their credit history (Excellent, Good, Average, Poor).
• Pricing Adjustment in Loan Officer Workbench – A new page has been created that is accessed from the Loan Summary tab called ‘Pricing Adjustments’. It can be added to the appropriate security groups using the Security Groups editor. The Pricing Adjustment page will display all of the pricing adjustments that apply to a loan. This will allow the person viewing the loan see how the final rate was determined.

According to Rob Meijer, Account Executive for CU*Answers’ division Lender*VP, and the CUSO’s primary support for this tool: “We are always working on improving how our clients do business. This release of the Prime Alliance is very exciting to us, especially being able to offer the Interim Construction Loans, since it truly meets the needs of our credit unions.”

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• Loan Interest Analysis Report — Use this report to see your current portfolio yield. Track this information to look back and see where your loan spread has been historically and which direction it is moving. Use this analysis to move your portfolio in the direction your credit union wants to move in the future.
• Loan Delivery Channel Analysis — Use this report to view turn-around time your lending factory is providing your members, to view processor volume both by dollar amount and number by date ranges, loan officer volume both by dollar amount and number by date ranges, as well as productivity of underwriters.
• Loan Risk Score Analysis Report — This report is a must for anyone who currently uses riskbased pricing. Use it to compare the performance of your risk based pricing with your loan performance. See if your risk matches your reimbursement. Do you need to adjust your credit score ranges or adjust your variance? This report tells you loans that are paid current and then breaks down the delinquent loans by ranges that you define.

Information on how to create these reports, and others can be found on the Lender*VP website, http://lendervp.com.

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