We have been a stand alone shop for many years, but we are looking at the possibilities and/or opportunities of starting an indirect lending CUSO. Any inupt/ideas/information from the readers to help me with this process would be greatly appreciated! Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and is ready for a wonderful Christmas and a GREAT New Year!
December 7, 2007
December 7, 2007 at 12:36 pm
TC –
What kind of ventures would the indirect CUSO handle? Dealer relationships, referrals to dealers, participations on the portfolio, auto buying service, GAP/MBP, outbound calling???
I know Doug and the FORUM CU crew are pretty good at lending as we’ve had a fairly successfully indirect program in the past at my CU…
December 14, 2007 at 1:55 pm
Of course I’m biased, but I always think it is important to first understand what is involved when deciding whether you may invest in a CUSO. For FCUs, a good place to start is NCUA’s Examiner’s Manual, which has a chapter devoted to CUSOs.
Here’s a link to the manual.
http://www.ncua.gov/GuidesManuals/examiners_guide/examguide.html
CUSOs are discussed in Chapter 25.
January 6, 2008 at 11:28 pm
Check us out if you are interested in starting an indirect CUSO. We’ve been at it for three years now, and have recently completed building proprietary software specifically for Indirect, as well as Direct lending.
We have an automated MemberMatch process that provides each participating CU with it’s own members. What a novel idea. A system that actually sends the loan to the right CU rather than a system that forces all of the CU’s to compete.
The system will allow you to serve multiple CU’s and even non-CU lenders, which you’ll need in order to maintain dealer relations. DealerTrack interface is built in, as are the most comprehensive lcustomizable loan decisioning critieria, literally anywhere.
We built the software, back office operations platform from scratch so we were able to get everything we wanted, and in a few cases, a bit more.
the platform is perfect for a Start-up CUSO as well as for a currently operating CUSO that wants really good software that can serve multiple Lenders and dealers, and even other CUSO’s.
January 10, 2008 at 2:36 pm
This site Walt speaks of is littered with incorrect spellings and inaccuracies. I am curious to know who put this together and what CU’s are involved.
June 17, 2008 at 8:20 am
I’m new to this blog, but my question is why would you need to become a member of or create a CUSO since the objective is to increase your customer base and create a good book of business with minimal risk and expense?
March 7, 2009 at 9:05 am
I am inteterested in what you are attempting to do here. I currently work for a CUSO, technology mortgage focussed company, and I am an employee of a federal credit union— one we just switched to.
I am the national sales manager, operations person, head chef, and just about everything else. My part of the operation is approaching a 100 FHA closings a month and we are 90% of the company profit. There has been no corporate investment. All expansion and marketing has been self-funded. So my group is getting a little frustrated at our high house fees. I am getting pushed to explore other options. The most desired situation would be to create or align with a CUSO or organize one affiliated with a federal credit union.
So what you are doing and insight from your peers is very interesting to me.