Coviance Allows Community Lenders to Harness the Power of Fintech

This article was originally published on CUInsight.

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In an era of consolidation among major financial institutions, credit unions and community lenders continue to provide their customers with the high-quality personalized service that can only be offered by local businesses. But a longstanding tradeoff for this level of service has been the inefficiency of cumbersome legacy systems and a lack of access to technology solutions that make the lending process more streamlined and accessible. 

When LenderClose (now Coviance) was founded in 2015, community lenders didn’t just face a widening technology gap – they were also struggling to adapt to sweeping regulatory changes and compliance demands. There was a significant need for technology which would allow community lenders to survive amid these changes and offer more competitive services and experiences to their customers. Coviance was created to help community lenders thrive by enabling a much better home equity borrowing experience with best-in-class technology that drastically improved speed and efficiency. 

With its rebranding, Coviance is moving into the next phase of growth as a partner to community lenders that will combine the power of fintech with the unmatched level of service in the industry. Coviance provides a cloud-based platform that gives community lenders the ability to significantly scale home equity volume with a clear to close in hours versus weeks. 

The home equity lending market is growing rapidly, but borrowers still face unnecessarily slow and unwieldy processes that waste time and cause frustration. It’s time for credit unions and community lenders to enter a new era, which means modernizing home equity lending experiences with technology solutions that make the process simpler, faster, and more convenient. This will simultaneously facilitate better service for customers and make home equity lending more scalable. 

Over 425 credit unions and community banks use Coviance, and our customers processed almost $8 billion in home equity lending transaction volume in 2022 alone. The company has grown 1,117 percent over the past three years, and we were recently included in the Inc. 5000 list as one of the fastest-growing companies in the country. 

As fintech companies increasingly forge partnerships in the banking sector, community lenders need a competitive edge that will allow them to offer unmatched customer service while leveraging real-time data to make informed decisions more quickly. This is exactly what our Home Equity Express™ (HEx) technology provides by automating the home equity loan process through configurable workflows and data-driven decisioning intelligence. Adoption of HEx remains strong (and immense growth is expected in 2023), while our product and technology teams have focused on workflow automation technologies and borrower-facing solutions which have a comprehensive impact on the customer experience.  

Recognizing that 2023 will be a critical growth year in home equity lending, we recognized our brand needed to reflect the fintech powerhouse we’ve become in order to accelerate growth in community lending. The Coviance brand represents a potent fusion: The power of a fintech. The heart of a community. And it captures our core values that drive our company mission to perfect the lending experience: champion innovation, enjoy the experience, and empower others.

Coviance keeps lending in the community by allowing local banks and credit unions to scale their home equity loan programs without adding staff, while improving compliance and building borrower loyalty with efficiency and personalized service. With a simple drag-and-drop workflow configuration, pre-built vendor integrations, and automated communications, Coviance puts time back in the hands of lenders and borrowers. Coviance also offers top-tier customer service, including live chats with experts and a full support team that provides consultative onboarding and workflow automations that fit lending process requirements. 

Community lenders need a partner that enables them to compete by eliminating costs and building stronger borrower relationships with intuitive, user-friendly technology solutions that offer quick and stress-free home equity loans. Local banks and credit unions have demonstrated their resilience for decades, but they continue to be hobbled by fragmented and outdated systems that strain the patience of customers and needlessly increase costs. At a time when interest rates are high and purchase mortgage volume is decreasing, community lenders can’t afford to be stuck with this status quo. 

We believe homeowners, credit unions, and banks will continue to prioritize home equity loans and HELOCs despite surging interest rates. With the personal savings rate plummeting, and as credit card debt has spiked by 15 percent – the largest year-over-year increase in more than two decades – much of this unsecured debt is due for consolidation in 2023 and 2024.

Despite the difficult economic conditions confronting community lenders around the country, tappable home equity will remain an essential source of financial stability for homeowners. Meanwhile, community lenders will continue to provide customers with the high-quality service and personal touch they’ve come to expect – often after many years of doing business together. But these lenders should be focused on new customers, too. Coviance exists to help local banks and credit unions expand their total addressable markets while continuing to prioritize the well-being of their customers. 

By harnessing the power of fintech, community banks and credit unions will put themselves in a much stronger growth position while increasing customer loyalty. Coviance has established itself as the go-to tech solution for community lenders who are ready to accelerate their business while keeping their focus squarely on the borrower experience.