What your peers are saying: Members 1st Federal Credit Union

Mark Ritter, Assistant Vice President for Business Lending, Members 1st Federal Credit Union

I oversee the business lending function from sales origination to credit to portfolio management.

Challenges

Our biggest challenges today are really twofold, the first being the regulatory side. There’s an increasing burden placed on our regulators, which costs us money, and then the indirect costs through the regulations through time and resources that we have to spend to meet up with their ever-increasing needs.

The other side is underwriting loans in today’s new reality -- being that companies that had historical financials that were very good may not be in the best role today, and companies who had very bad financials the past few years may actually be in a very good position today. 

Experian's Consultative Approach 

The reason I like partnering with Experian is because there are many companies out there that provide data and software, but Experian really focuses on solutions. They have people who understand my business and come up with solutions for my business based on our size, scope and complexity and not simply the solution that they are selling.

The Results

Our regulators have been extremely happy with our solutions that we implemented from Baker Hill and Experian. As a result, they granted us some waivers so that we can expand our program a little bit more. Last year, the programs they approved us for counted for over $1.2 million for our bottom line which is a significant amount of money for our  credit union.