Suncoast Credit Union makes it their mission to set members up for success. By empowering them with the right tools, they ensure that their members’ financial positions can grow in a positive direction.  

“As the nation’s largest CDFI, a core component of our strategy is the advancement of financial inclusion. We see our members as human beings beyond just the number of their credit scores, and we consistently look for thoughtful ways to extend opportunities and approve more loans for this group,” shared Joanna Bradley, Vice President of Consumer Loan Delivery. 

For that reason, five years ago, Suncoast engaged Zest AI to enhance the loan underwriting process. Over that period, the credit union has been able to lend deeper within its membership while dramatically increasing automation to drive organizational efficiencies. In fact, Suncoast has experienced a 30% increase in automation, raising the number of applications decided upon without staff intervention to 60%. 

In addition, with Zest AI’s support, Suncoast has been able to roll out centralized underwriting across its 78 branches. That single act freed up countless hours for the Suncoast team of loan analysts, enabling them more time for more complex loan decisions.  

“That 30% jump in automation helped us realize that we didn’t need to have underwriting spread across the whole organization,” said Bradley. “As an added benefit, centralized underwriting is creating more consistency across branches which provides additional efficiencies by automating the majority of decisions.” 

Growing member relationships

Beyond the operational impact of engaging Zest AI, Suncoast has also seen it as a significant value-add for member relationships. In fact, Bradley tells a story of a member who recently came into a branch, having just experienced the total loss of a vehicle. It was an extremely stressful time, and that member was anxious about the loan approval process. Because the credit union had Zest AI underwriting in place, their member advocate was able to deliver a fast, confident “yes” on the loan application for the new vehicle, freeing them up to focus on the member—to much success. 

“The member told us they felt like we were their partner, helping them through a really traumatic life event. They went as far as to say that we were more than just a lender, we were a partner,” shared Bradley. “Zest AI created an opportunity for us to harness and expand member relationships.” 

The data shows that the sentiment reflected in that story also extends to the majority of consumer lending applicants as well. Bradley reports that their consumer loan experience survey consistently comes back with a 90% Net Promoter Score (NPS), one of the highest the credit union sees.  

“We track our member experience very closely, and we’re proud to say that our survey dedicated to consumer loans has consistently been around 90%. It demonstrates to us that our members do appreciate the quick efficiency enabled by Zest AI, as well as the attentive support they receive from our member advocates.” 

Enhancing opportunities through innovation

Even with all of this success, Suncoast is not a credit union to rest on its laurels. They recently engaged Clutch, a platform designed to modernize deposit and lending operations, and through a strategic integration, now leverage it in concert with Zest AI’s automated decisioning to pre-qualify members for loans before they even apply.  

“We see this as key to our members’ financial wellness. Without even applying for a loan, they can see what they have the best chance of approval for, so that when they submit their application, they have the confidence of knowing that they have a high likelihood of approval,” summed up Bradley.  

Building a future with Zest AI

Overall, Suncoast sees a bright future with Zest AI, looking forward to expanding its capabilities beyond loan originations to support their members’ full financial journey. The credit union is working to implement Zest AI Fraud Detection, and an application fraud protection solution is really important to their organization as they scale automation. They are also utilizing LuLu Strategy. While they are in the early stages with LuLu, Bradley shared that Suncoast sees its potential in supporting the mortgage team, consumer lending, compliance, consumer collections, through automation analysis, peer comparisons, economic insights, and overall reporting. In short, they plan on deepening their LuLu use over time.  

“We see Zest AI as a strategic partner. They consistently grow and scale with us as our needs evolve, and that gives us confidence to deepen our relationship with them and optimize their solutions for the benefit of our members,” Bradley concluded.