America First Credit Union selects best-in-class hosted decisioning solution

COSTA MESA, Calif., Oct. 25 , 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Experian^®, the leading global information services company, today announced that it has provided America First Credit Union with a comprehensive hosted decisioning solution that will help the Utah-based credit union instantly make credit underwriting decisions on direct and indirect auto loans for new and used vehicles.

America First Credit Union provides personal and commercial banking services to its members via 103 branches located throughout Utah and Nevada. The credit union was looking for tools that were cost-effective, were fast to implement and required minimal internal IT support. The solution also needed to help the credit union generate additional revenue by automating decisions while effectively managing credit and mitigating the risk of fraud.

"We selected Experian because the products can be accessed through a hosted environment, so there was minimal capital investment required on our end. Another added benefit is that the Experian products are integrated with our existing MeridianLink loan origination system, which will enable us to implement these new capabilities in record time," said Randy Halley, senior vice president of branch services at America First Credit Union. "We did not need to devote our own resources toward sophisticated analytical applications. We simply draw on the Experian tools on demand through its Decisioning as a Service capability."

The solution provides America First Credit Union with long-term flexibility for deploying future decisioning strategies across additional decision areas, lines of business and channels based on its specific business needs, budget and available resources. It also allows the credit union to leverage Experian's Strategy Management^SM decision engine, industry-leading Premier Attributes^SM, Precise ID^SM authentication and fraud detection, world-class credit data, and global consulting best practices to ensure that it realizes maximum business benefits. 

How it works
As part of the initial hosted implementation, Experian's Decisioning as a Service^SM will seamlessly integrate with America First's existing loan origination system, LoansPQ from MeridianLink Inc., which captures and sends application data to Experian's Decisioning as a Service once a member applies for an auto loan. Decisioning as a Service then will apply America First's credit underwriting decision criteria using Experian's Strategy Management decision engine, which leverages Champion/Challenger testing. The credit underwriting decision criteria also will use Experian's Premier Attributes, the credit industry's most robust and predictive tri-bureau credit attributes.

Decisioning as a Service returns a decision in real time to America First Credit Union via the MeridianLink loan origination software. America First Credit Union also will have the option of leveraging Experian's Precise ID for authentication and identity fraud risk assessment during the credit underwriting process through Decisioning as a Service. For approved applications, MeridianLink automates booking activities, and for declined or pended applications, the system supports manual reviews.

As part of the implementation, America First Credit Union also will use Experian's Global Consulting Practice to help create highly effective and strategic credit decisioning criteria that will ensure regulatory compliance.  

"In today's economy, credit unions and other financial institutions are looking for cost-effective, innovative technologies and comprehensive data and analytics that will help them improve booking rates, control bad debt and reduce operating costs associated with manual reviews," said Charles Chung, president of Decision Analytics North America at Experian. "Through the combination of Strategy Management, Premier Attributes and Precise ID, as well as the insights of our Global Consulting Practice, America First Credit Union will be able to do this by taking the guesswork out of credit underwriting decisioning and meeting its strategic business goals."

"We are thrilled that our industry-leading loan origination platform, LoansPQ, is being complemented by Experian's Decisioning as a Service at America First Credit Union," said Tim Ngyuen, senior vice president and chief technology officer at MeridianLink. "Combining the strengths of Experian and MeridianLink, we are delivering a unique, world-class loan origination and credit decisioning package that can help credit unions and banks of all sizes operate more efficiently and profitably when it comes to lending."

About America First Credit Union
America First Credit Union was founded at Fort Douglas in Salt Lake City on March 16, 1939 by a small group of people determined to form a cooperative to promote their collective economic well-being. In its 73-year history, America First has become one of the largest, most stable and most progressive credit unions in the country, and has remained a member-owned, not-for-profit cooperative financial institution. Today, America First has 103 branches, is the 12th largest credit union in assets in the United States with over $5.5 billion, and the 7th largest credit union in membership in America with more than 594,000 members. For more information, visit www.americafirst.com.

About Experian
Experian is the leading global information services company, providing data and analytical tools to clients around the world. The Group helps businesses to manage credit risk, prevent fraud, target marketing offers and automate decision making. Experian also helps individuals to check their credit report and credit score, and protect against identity theft.

Experian plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN) and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 index. Total revenue for the year ended March 31, 2012, was $4.5 billion. Experian employs approximately 17,000 people in 44 countries and has its corporate headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, with operational headquarters in Nottingham, UK; California, US; and São Paulo, Brazil.

For more information, visit http://www.experianplc.com.

Experian and the Experian marks used herein are service marks or registered trademarks of Experian Information Solutions, Inc. Other product and company names mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.

Contact:

Michael Troncale
Experian Public Relations
1 714 830 5462
[email protected]
Twitter:@tronbueno

SOURCE Experian