CEO Leo Vaulin describes the benefits:

“This is winning proposition for both credit unions and their members.  Credit union can offer a more competitive fee structure on these loans, but still preserve sufficient revenues to cover their risk and make it a profitable program.  Along with more reasonable rates, credit unions can help borrowers by providing access to financial education in their communities.”

“We see this as a process towards the goal of financial independence,” continues Mr. Vaulin.   “You start by replacing a predatory pricing structure with one that is more equitable – the member has more money left over on their next payday, and they are encouraged to start saving and building a stronger relationship with their credit union.  Gradually, as they establish a good history with the credit union, you can wean them away from this dependency, and move them towards your more conventional credit products.  In the meantime, you’ve helped develop the PFI relationship with that member, and that’s worth thousands of dollars over the long term.”

CU*SOUTH has partnered with Lender*VP and Prospera Credit Union in implementing their proven business model, GoodMoney, which includes branding and consulting services to deliver a turnkey solution to the credit union.

Tri-Rivers FCU in Montgomery, AL, is the first credit union to implement GoodMoney with CU*SOUTH.  CEO Mr. James Dill is excited at the prospect of offering his members a better choice.  “In some ways, the GoodMoney model is similar to Courtesy Pay,” he says.  “You’re extending short-term credit for a limited amount and a very limited term.  GoodMoney allows us to work with members who might not qualify for our conventional loan products – or even Courtesy Pay.  Our objective is to build that long-term relationship and help our members break the cycle of barely making it from paycheck to paycheck.”

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For instance, versus arbitrarily interpreting the Act and required measures for compliance, CU*Answers will collaborate jointly with its clients on designing a variety of new tools and services intended to effectively comply with the still evolving regulation. These CU*Answers sponsored efforts will include custom programming for flooding new due dates on member loans, evaluation of collections and delinquency fine settings, review of statement configurations, and assisting with review of credit union disclosures that may need to be modified for compliance. These services are being provided free to clients utilizing the CU*BASE processing system.

Randy Karnes, CU*Answers CEO says We want to follow the lead of our credit unions interpretations of the act with multiple solutions to fit their plans. Bottom line, we are all in this together, and responding is a group effort and shared expense, so the CUSO will pick up the tab as much as possible.

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This document contains the majority of the reports generated by CU*BASE on a daily basis. It was designed to assist in due diligence of member, staff, and G/L activity in CU*BASE. The document is formatted to be used on a daily basis, and is arranged to allow credit unions to easily assign different reports to different members of the staff.

Included in this document are Collections and Lending Reports, Accounting Reports, Auditing Reports, Member Service Reports, Teller Reports, as well as other daily reports. Each report has a brief description, the name and title of the report and when it is generated. Following, is a description of the report with tips for its use.

For more information please visit the page on CU*Answers’ series of Favorite Reports.

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According to the CUSO, CU*BASE can now handle posting a regular payment and a separate principal-only payment at the same time, with two independent transactions and member-friendly descriptions, without the use of special teller Procedure Codes.

The new enhancements also include:

• New interactive user messages for smart handling of any payment amount
• New secondary transaction descriptions, which will clearly document a member’s decision to make a regular payment, or a principal-only payment
• The ability to configure mortgages to allow members to pay ahead, if desired
• The ability to choose a monthly interest calculation date other than the 20th if to match the day of the month used by loan participation partners.

The project was implemented for all credit unions as part of the CU*BASE GOLD 9.0 release, on May 18 for online credit unions, and scheduled for June 3-4 for self processors.

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This program is offered in 3 different levels—the first, “5000 Mile Tune-Up” is free to CU*BASE users and includes a phone consultation with a Lender*VP staff member in which areas of improvement for the credit union’s lending department are identified. Areas of focus include analyzing the use of delinquency notices, improving profitability by offering 45 Day 1st Payments, Risk-Based Pricing Reviews, and Portfolio Analysis Reports.

The “25,000 Mile Tune-Up” includes the complete “5,000 Mile Tune-Up” plus a one day onsite implementation and training visit from a Lender*VP Team Member, during which specific recommendations are made to increase lending efficiency and profitability. Loan Category and Products Review, Collections Configuration, and Cross Sales Analysis are just a few opportunities to take advantage of during this program.

The Lender*VP team also offers a “50,000 Mile Tune-Up”—to learn more about this program, and to take advantage of the experience and expertise of the Lender*VP team, contact Geoff Johnson, VP Lending Products at gjohnson@cuanswers,com, (800-327-3478×154), or John Yeomans, jyeomans@cuanswers (800-327-3478×203).

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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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• Building the Future Credit Union Network
• CU*Answers and Reed Data Partner to Bring E-Doc Power to CUs
• CU*NorthWest Adds Five Additional CU Clients; Fills Board Seats
• Expanding the Network, CU*Answers Partners with Gulf Data Systems to Form CU*South
• Revving Up Cycle Sales With Indirect Loans
• Check 21 CUSO with Corporate One
• Making Retail Dental Loans Without Pulling Teeth

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