The Value of a ‘Can-do’ Mindset for HELOCs and Fintech

Omar Jordan says a mantra he lives by personally and professionally is, this one from Tony Robbins: "Stop being afraid of what could go wrong, and start being excited of what could go right." 

As founder/CEO of the credit union service organization Coviance, Des Moines, Iowa, Jordan believes that credit unions would benefit from not being afraid to take a risk to see what good could come of it—especially a calculated risk related to home equity lending, lending automation and working with fintechs. 

“In this industry, as you know, … we're good at managing risk,” Jordan says in the show. “And that's primarily what I hear. ‘We manage risk, we manage risk.’ And to that I say, … 'Everything is scary until it's not.’ And so, it's okay to take risks every now and then as long as we're not putting one out of business. Let's … continue along the path of innovation.” 

In this episode of the CUES Podcast, Jordan talks about trends in the HELOC market. 

“We've been actually predicting home equity lending demand to rise, and our predictions became reality,” he says. “We're seeing industry headwinds such as high interest rates, home values being on the rise [and] lack of demand for refinance and purchase mortgage turn into opportunity or tailwinds for credit unions, and especially credit unions who are looking to expand on their TAM, their total addressable market and their member share of wallet.” 

In addition to describing Coviance’s lending automation offering and its potential to bring a credit union a return on its investment, Jordan also offers his thoughts about partnering with fintechs that will enhance your core business versus compete with it. 

“There are competing fintechs, and they … are going after our credit union members—and not just on the lending side but nearly every product that credit union offers,” he says in the show. "And there are fintechs, such as Coviance, [that] … are primarily focused on providing credit unions the technology solutions, the product … they need ... to lend at ... the speed of today's borrower—because your members’ expectations today aren't what your members’ expectations were five years ago.” 

The show also gets into: 

• the difference between lending automation tools and loan origination systems—and how credit unions can benefit from having both.  
• what the Coviance system offers 
• Jordan’s big-picture thoughts about how credit unions can best partner with fintechs 
• ideas worth considering regarding digital transformation, digital optimization and innovation. 

Links for this show: 

• Coviance 
• Transcript