LenderHub

Our Chairman and Co-founder had the opportunity to sit down with CUInsight's Randy Smith, to chat about some of the most important lessons he's learned in life and business, his dedication to giving back to the community, as well as the culture that he and President and Co-founder, Gary Dudley, have built over the last 43 years for SWBC.

We live in a day and age where consumers are all too happy to verbalize their complaints. Whether via Amazon reviews, Yelp, or social media posts, consumers have the ability to give their virtual thumbs up or down to let the world know how they feel about a product, service, or business.

Collections plays a critical role in your institution’s financial health. While delinquency rates can be cyclical, rising and falling as the economy shifts, for lenders, it’s critical to keep themselves in a position to be able to manage both increases and decreases in delinquency efficiently.

The mortgage loan origination process can be clunky and inefficient. Ultimately, the goal of lenders is to close as many qualified mortgage loans as possible—while remaining compliant, of course.

There’s no shortage of scams affecting consumers and financial institutions alike when it comes to credit card fraud. According to the Federal Trade Commission, scammers ripped off Americans to the tune of $423 million last year through wire transfer fraud. Surprisingly, younger people, ages 20-29, reported losing money to fraud at an alarmingly higher rate than their 70-80+ counterparts—43% compared to 15%, respectively.

Companies in every industry have had to adapt to growing consumer expectations for financial interactions that are fast, easy, and secure. Experiences with online retail firms like Amazon have conditioned consumers to expect a seamless payment process where debit or credit cards can be used with the click of a button from any device—or even activated through voice commands. That retail experience has evolved into strong bill payment preferences that have influenced how consumers want to manage their loan payments.

It’s no secret that the demographic makeup of a financial institution’s membership is changing. As Boomers near retirement, their children are entering the mid-career phase of their lives, and their grandchildren are starting their financial journey. Each of these demographic segments has different product and service needs, as well as differing expectations from their financial service providers.

Delinquencies in the auto loan landscape are the highest they’ve been in the past decade. According to the New York Fed's recent blog post, 2018 was marked by historically high levels of newly originated loans in the auto industry, with $584 billion in new auto loans and leases showing up on credit reports. At the end of 2018, more than 7 million American borrowers were behind on their auto loans by 90 days or more.

In this age of digital communication, smartphones, smartwatches, and instant information, consumers don’t have to look far—or at all (Hello, digital ad retargeting!)—to find companies that are chomping at the bit to serve them in just about any capacity. While this is great for consumers, it poses a challenge to lenders. How can financial institutions rise above the increasingly large pool of competitors to win a borrower’s business? Fortunately, traditional financial institutions already offer their customers many advantages, and focusing on those existing advantages is the key to winning business and deepening your existing relationship.

I look forward to CUDATA.COM’s statistics and trends report each quarter. It gives our team insights into what our industry is experiencing and how that will impact our clients and their members. 2018 ended on a high note, and we are seeing a strong start to 2019. Here are some notable KPIs from the report: