Clutch Launches Lending Automation System (LAS), the First Automated Lending Platform Built Exclusively for Credit Unions
SAN FRANCISCO, July 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Clutch, the fintech platform co-built with credit unions, today announced the general availability of the Clutch Lending Automation System (LAS), the modern end-to-end lending automation platform designed exclusively for the credit union model. A dozen credit union partners, ranging from $256M to $6B in assets, have chosen Clutch LAS as the technology powering their lending strategy.
Clutch LAS is the culmination of two years of development conducted in close partnership with credit union leaders across the country. The platform significantly speeds up and streamlines the applicant experience with an automation-first architecture: one that handles the entire lending journey from application to funded loan, automating the loans that don't require human judgment and guiding staff through the ones that do.
"Some loans don't need a person in the middle, they need a system that can move at the speed the member expects. A member who has been with you for sixteen years, never missed a payment, and has thirty thousand dollars in savings shouldn't have to wait three days for a loan answer. Clutch LAS closes that gap: the right answer, for the right member, in minutes, not days," said Nicholas Hinrichsen, Co-founder and CEO of Clutch.
The Problem Clutch Lending Automation System Solves
Credit unions have historically operated lending systems built for a world where every loan required a human to touch it. That assumption is embedded in the architecture of every legacy system: software that organizes people around loans rather than removing people from loans wherever automation can handle them.
The result is a lending operation that scales linearly with headcount, and barely scales at all. As fast-growing fintechs like SoFi and neobanks built automation capabilities over the past decade, credit unions face a growing gap: members expecting decisions in minutes, and systems built to take days.
Clutch LAS closes that gap. Not by making credit unions act more like banks or fintechs, but by giving them the technological infrastructure to be better credit unions: faster for members, smarter on risk, and able to serve people that algorithm-driven lenders overlook.
"Clutch LAS isn't a faster version of the systems credit unions already have," said Tamanna Kottwani, Head of Product at Clutch. "It is a fundamentally different architecture. Instead of organizing people around loans, we built a system that handles the lending process end to end and brings staff in only when their judgment is required. The result speaks for itself: our customers see a 1.4x increase in loans funded, at any hour, on any channel, without waiting for someone to look at an application."
How Clutch Lending Automation System (LAS) Works
Clutch LAS combines three components into a single platform:
Digital Account Opening and Loan Origination (DAO/DLO) captures member applications across every channel: online, mobile, branch, call center, and dealership, in under five minutes. The result is a meaningfully faster member experience: credit unions on Clutch LAS see a 2 to 4x reduction in the time required to open an account or get a loan.
Fastlane, Clutch's AI-powered decisioning engine, evaluates each application in real time using the credit union's own policy and member relationship data: account history, repayment behavior, and core relationship depth, not just a credit report. Clutch customers typically achieve 70% to 85% auto decisioning across fraud and underwriting.
Clutch Fulfillment handles the loans that require human judgment. When an application needs staff review, Fulfillment creates a structured, task-driven workflow that guides staff through exactly what needs to happen, surfacing the right member context, enforcing policy, and moving the loan toward resolution. Staff don't need years of lending experience to handle complex situations because the system carries the expertise.
A Platform Built With Credit Unions, Not for Them
Unlike legacy systems that serve credit unions as one segment of a broader market, Clutch is purpose-built for the credit union operating model. Every product decision, integration, and pricing structure is designed specifically for credit unions, not adapted from a bank product or horizontal platform.
Clutch LAS was co-developed with credit union leaders over two years of intensive partnership: shadowing loan officers, reviewing real member applications, and building the platform around what credit unions actually know about their members and communities.
The platform is built to meet credit unions where they are. The platform's crawl-walk-run adoption model means credit unions can start with digital application capture and automated decisioning, then expand to full platform deployment over time. Credit unions that have deployed Clutch consistently report meaningful improvements in member satisfaction, particularly around the ease and speed of the lending experience.
Learn more at withclutch.com or request a demo at withclutch.com/demo
About Clutch
Clutch is the fintech platform built exclusively for credit unions. Its Lending Automation System (LAS) combines digital application capture, AI-powered decisioning, and staff workflow tools into a single platform that handles lending end to end. Clutch serves more than 175+ credit unions and 25 million members across the United States. Clutch is headquartered in San Francisco, CA.
Fintech muscle. Credit union heart.
SOURCE WithClutch
Share this article