New York, NY – May 16^th, 2013 – cuStudentLoans, a private student loan and private student loan consolidation program managed by not-for-profit credit unions, today announced the development of a new private student loan refinancing program for consumer driven-movement leader, joinStampede.  The program, which features a private student loan consolidation without origination fees, was created between cuStudentLoans and joinStampede in response to the 30,000 consumers that pledged interest in refinancing their private student loans through the group discounting initiative.

The initiative, which will continue to collect registrations from consumers with student debt until May 31^st (via www.joinStampede.com), will officially begin accepting applications on June 1^st.  The unique program, which features no origination fee, will allow consumers to apply through June 15^th.  cuStudentLoans, which has approved over 10,000 consumer applications for $500 million in private student loan refinancing, says that the average interest rate of private student loans that have been refinanced through their program is 5.66%; a far cry from the average 8.46% average that consumers held before refinancing.

“The success of joinStampede’s campaign is further evidence that consumers are seeking better rates and terms on their student loans,” said Alice Stevens, Chairman of the cuStudentLoans program.  “cuStudentLoans is happy to be the answer to their needs and will continue to lower interest rates for graduates holding high-interest private student loan debt,” continued Stevens.

“joinStampede has a lot of similarities to the cooperative nature of credit unions,” said Paul Gentile, Executive Vice President of the Credit Union National Association (CUNA).  “Credit unions bring people together for the betterment of the whole. joinStampede does the same. Rather than join the drumbeat of naysayers calling student loan debt the next big hit to our economy, let’s work together to make it better,” continued Gentile.

joinStampede, which operates on the belief that organizing consumers around technology and like-minded issues creates a powerful tool for affecting real change in markets, has generated interest from over 30,000 consumers seeking refinancing options.  joinStampede has partnered with Causes.com, the world’s largest platform for social change, to engage passionate communities of consumers with private student loan debt.

“We’re thrilled to have gained such traction and momentum in a consumer finance category that has plagued so many recent graduates,” said Stephen Dash, Founder of joinStampede.  “We hope that by partnering with credit unions we can help 30,000 consumers become financially independent and potentially save thousands of dollars in annual interest payments on their private student loans,” continued Dash.

About cuStudentLoans

cuStudentLoans is a leading network of credit unions offering private student lending options to students and families nationwide.  Developed in 2009, cuStudentLoans is comprised of over 160 progressive credit unions that built a member-responsive private student loan program using a common underwriting and pricing platform. The program, which consists of both the cuScholar Private Student Loan and cuGrad Private Student Loan Consolidation, includes loan participations to enhance and mitigate risk.

About joinStampede

joinStampede is a consumer movement that uses people power to save individuals money on the big expenses in their lives. www.joinstampede.com.

About Causes.com

Causes.com is the world’s largest platform for social change. The platform enables individuals, grassroots organizers, nonprofits and companies to run online-to-offline campaigns. Causes tools help people find passionate communities, take collective action, and make an impact. www.causes.com/about.

New York, NY – April 29^th, 2013 – LendKey (formerly Fynanz), the cloud-based lending technology company located in New York City, today announced the addition of Andrews Federal Credit Union (MD) to its growing list of lending partners.  The credit union will utilize the LendKey network platform for all elements of their private student loan and private student loan consolidation programs.

Andrews Federal Credit Union, a $970 million credit union that serves over 100,000 members at military bases and installations around the world, as well as over 200 additional employer groups throughout Maryland and New Jersey, will be the latest credit union lending partner to join the cuStudentLoans program.  The program, which utilizes the LendKey platform to offer common underwriting and pricing across a network of 165 credit unions, includes loan participation to enhance risk mitigation.

“The cuStudentLoans program provides us the perfect opportunity to enter a new asset class and grow Gen-Y membership while still taking advantage of the risk mitigation benefits of an experienced lending network,” said Russ McAtee, COO at Andrews Federal Credit Union.  “We’re excited to grow our portfolio with a group of like-minded credit unions already seasoned in the asset class,” continued McAtee.

“LendKey is pleased to partner with such a prominent Washington DC area credit union that serves such an important membership base,” said Jim Merrill, SVP of Sales for LendKey.  “We’re excited for their involvement in both the private student loan and private student loan consolidation network programs, and look forward to growing their portfolio quickly this upcoming academic lending season,” continued Merrill.

New York, NY – April 29^th, 2013 – LendKey (formerly Fynanz), the cloud-based lending technology company located in New York City, today announced the addition of United States Senate Federal Credit Union (VA) to its growing list of lending partners.  The credit union will utilize the LendKey custom platform to power its private student loan and private student loan consolidation programs.

United States Senate Federal Credit Union, a $575 million credit union that serves over 30,000 members that are employees of the US Senate and US Supreme Court, among other government entities as well as private companies and organizations, is the most recent credit union to build a customized student lending solution using the LendKey platform.  Lending partners that build a custom program on the LendKey platform choose their own product and credit requirements to best suit their members’ needs.

“We wanted a lending solution that was built to fit the individual needs of our membership base in time for the upcoming academic year,” said Susan Enis, CEO of United States Senate Federal Credit Union.  “LendKey, with their ability to offer a three week implementation period, was an easy choice for our credit union,” continued Enis.

“United States Senate Federal Credit Union, with their strong member base of government employees, is a terrific addition to our Washington DC area credit union clients,” said Jim Merrill, SVP of Sales for LendKey.  “Whether offering private student loans to current college students, or refinancing existing private student loans through consolidation, we look forward to helping them grow their portfolio in time for the quickly approaching academic lending season,” continued Merrill.

The trade group conducted what it said was its first annual High School Student Borrowing Survey, polling 847 students nationwide, and found that nearly half didn’t know how much they would need to pay for their higher education.

The poll also found that 83% did not know what kind of interest rates they’d be paying for student loans and 77% didn’t know the loan durations they could expect to be taking on, CUNA said Wednesday.

But the 17- and 18-year-olds surveyed apparently don’t lack moxie. Seventy percent of them said they are confident they will land a high-paying job after they graduate.

CUNA also said of those who knew what they will owe after graduation, 15% said they will owe $10,000 or less; 22%, $11,000-$50,000; and 13%, more than $50,000.

That means opportunity for credit unions, the trade group said.

“Student lending is an important, growing segment of the credit union portfolio. The more credit unions pay attention to this emerging market, the more they can better service their members,” said Paul Gentile, CUNA executive vice president, strategic communications and engagement.

Credit unions typically offer better terms than for-profit lenders and have a better repayment record, with default rates at about 1.6%, compared with less than 6% for all private student loans and more than 12% for federal loans, the trade group said.

But there’s still the problem of basic knowledge about what the young borrowers are getting into when they take out the loans.

“These troubling findings suggest not just a lack of awareness of college cost or how debt works but also a lack of basic financial knowledge,” Gentile said.

“The results suggest that some students could be challenged in managing basic expenses or using such payment tools as credit cards in a consistently responsible manner as they enter adulthood,” he said.

Gentile noted that CUNA is now lobbying for the government to allow student loans of longer duration than the current 15-year standard.

“The 15-year standard student loan made sense in years past when the total debt taken out was much lower,” Gentile said.

“College is a lifetime investment. The value of a longer term is you can better structure the loan to allow for smaller payments in the early work years,” the CUNA EVP said.

[Source]

The “bubble” is easily explained as government driven, as approximately 85% of the country’s estimated $1 trillion in student loan debt has been issued by the federal government. Interest rates on federal loans range from a subsidized rate of 3.4% to 7.99%, not including origination fees. These federal loan programs do not assess creditworthiness of the student borrower and do not require a cosigner, and have default rates topping 12% that reflect the lack of credit requirements.

Conversely, private student loans, which are supplemental to federal loans, are issued by traditional lenders such as banks and credit unions. Private student loans are credit underwritten and in most cases (~90%) require a creditworthy cosigner, resulting in a much lower 5% default rate. Private student loans can be either variable or fixed rate, but generally reflect current market conditions, which can sometimes be much cheaper than some federal options.

The Credit Union Times recently published an article summarizing the CUNA survey and highlighting the opportunity for credit unions to serve their members with financial literacy around higher-education financing and reasonably priced private student loan products.

It’s true that credit unions, with their generally low interest rates, can be a positive source of financing for students and families looking for help in paying for college. There are also many other types of lenders, including community banks and groups of like-minded lenders/investors, that can help families bridge the gap between federal financing and the total cost of college at very reasonable rates.

Regardless of the source of funding, it’s important that lenders practice education and financial responsibility with student borrowers early in their borrowing lifecycle. These high school students are the future of the country and lenders, whether interested in the student loan asset class or not, should be mindful of the learning that comes from the CUNA survey, as a lack of financial awareness early on may hinder borrowing in all other asset classes in the future.

“We were introduced to LendKey about three years ago for their student loan origination platform,” said McGraw-Hill FCU CEO Shawn Gilfedder. “Our goal was to offer a customized product that allowed our members to get the information and support they needed to enter the private student loan market with our advantageous pricing structure.”

With 20,250 members, 54 employees, three branches and $305 million in assets, the credit union soon realized an uptick in loan rates. “We have seen steady double-digit growth in the private student loan product,” said Gilfedder, who reiterated that the product was non-existent three years ago.

The New York-based LendKey, formerly the private student lending solutions provider Fynanz, provides over 235 credit union clients with a cloud-based, secure lending infrastructure. The company’s CEO, Vince Passione, said credit unions clients have refinanced over $125 million in private student loan debt, while saving borrowers over $25 million in interest payments.

Before signing with LendKey, Gilfedder explained that he and his team vetted other vendors over a three-month period from discovery to rollout with no significant hiccups along the way.

“There is little need for integration. Their [LendKey] process is similar to working an external originator/servicing platform,” said Gilfedder. “The platform is the standard and offers a servicing solution that basically takes most of the operational workload off the end user.”

Optimizing Loans
Since the platform is cloud-based, there wasn’t a realized impact on McGraw-Hill FCU’s existing technologies. The majority of training was directed toward the credit union developing loan origination guidelines that were in sync with LendKey.

“There was no impact to our core. Their systems are cloud based and they manage everything from the membership opportunity to scheduled disbursements,” said Gilfedder. “Basically there is an ongoing underwriting review process and monthly reconciliation process very similar to standard servicing arrangements.”

The success of the student loan origination platform led McGraw-Hill FCU to explore additional prospects that could be considered unconventional by some in the credit union industry.

Opportunities To Consider
“There are opportunities credit unions should consider in the alternative education channel, such as trade schools, as well as energy loan programs and the like,” said Gilfedder. “There is a great opportunity for credit unions to work cooperatively in aggregate loans for participation. LendKey offers some great intellectual capital as part of their methodology and a broad network of participating credit unions.”

The next loan-based initiative for McGraw-Hill FCU will be implementing a program for an educational trade association. “We anticipate $5 million to $8 million of annual loan production from a single resource and plan to expand the offering to other venues, including the energy sector here in New Jersey,” said Gilfedder.

Gilfedder advised other credit unions searching for a cloud-based loan originating platform to “think beyond the traditional box and look at the opportunity to aggregate loans, grow membership and diversify your product pipeline through a technology-based solution.”

Cincinnati, Ohio – February 28th, 2013 – LendKey (formerly Fynanz), the cloud-based lending technology company located in New York City, has recently opened a second office location in the suburbs of Cincinnati. LendKey will continue to use its Manhattan office for its management, sales, marketing and technology operations, while the Ohio location will focus on the financial operations of LendKey’s core lending services, including borrower loan servicing and financial control, as well as the introduction of a credit union support services center to provide ongoing support for its 235 credit union lending partners.

“We’ve experienced tremendous growth and have outgrown our current space in New York City,” said Vince Passione, CEO of LendKey. “This growth has provided an opportunity to put in place a LendKey controlled data backup and redundancy plan by transitioning a portion of our business to Ohio and helping to ensure quality for our 235 lending partners that we service.”

LendKey, which had previously operated with 50 employees entirely out of its Manhattan location, expects to create over 70 new jobs in the next three years through its new Ohio based operations, and was recently awarded a payroll tax credit for their commitment to create jobs in the state. “Cincinnati is a great location with a superb workforce capable of building and delivering an exceptional level of service for our lending partners and their borrowers,” said Passione.

About LendKey

Formerly private student lending solutions provider Fynanz, LendKey, located in New York and Ohio, offers cloud-based technology to provide the essential infrastructure for credit union or any party to quickly, securely, efficiently, and profitably lend to anyone else – from those offering loans directly to those structuring new types of loans. LendKey’s lending solutions to credit unions nationwide primarily provide loans pertaining to automobiles, students, or green efforts. The company’s clients and partners, 235 credit unions and the Credit Union National Association, have exclusively leveraged the platform for private student lending purposes. For more information, visit www.lendkey.com.

LendKey’s platform includes demand-generation services that help lenders build lending ecosystems and grow their portfolio while still mitigating risk. Demand-generation services, in the student lending verticals, are driven by marketing the existing membership base of lending partners, as well as membership growth through school relationships and reseller partnerships. “In 2012 we helped our lending partners increase their access to qualified borrowers seeking fairly priced student loan products,” said Vince Passione, CEO of LendKey. “Our demand-generation services resulted in a 30% increase in school relationships for our lending clients and tripled the size of their reseller network,” said Passione.

cuStudentLoans, a credit union created and managed private student loan program, is LendKey’s largest client leveraging its cloud-based platform to gain market reach and mitigate risk through a loan participation program. According to Alice Stevens, Chairman of cuStudentLoans and COO of First Financial Federal Credit Union, more than 75% of the students helped through its private student loan program were credit union members in need of higher education financing.

The program also helped recent graduates refinance and consolidate existing student loan debt, who generally face limited repayment options, and are looking to reduce the interest rate on their student loans. “We expect a strong 2013 for credit unions interested in refinancing high interest student loan debt held by both their existing members, as well as young graduates that are prospective members, who are just beginning their financial lives on their own,” Stevens says. “Millions of recent graduates are facing high interest student loan debt that makes their financial lives difficult to manage. Credit unions can continue to be their super heroes by helping them refinance their debt and provide other financial products to assist them with their money management.”

To date credit unions have refinanced over $125 million in private student loan debt and have saved borrowers over $25 million in interest payments.

About LendKey

Formerly private student lending solutions provider Fynanz, LendKey, located in New York, offers cloud-based technology to provide the essential infrastructure for credit union or any party to quickly, securely, efficiently, and profitably lend to anyone else – from those offering loans directly to those structuring new types of loans. LendKey’s lending solutions to credit unions nationwide primarily provide loans pertaining to automobiles, students, or green efforts. The company’s clients and partners, 235 credit unions and the Credit Union National Association, have exclusively leveraged the platform for private student lending purposes. For more information, visit http://www.lendkey.com.

About cuStudentLoans

cuStudentLoans is a leading network of progressive credit unions offering private student lending options to students and families nationwide. Formed in 2010, CU Student Lending, LLC is comprised of over 150 progressive credit unions that built a member-responsive private student loan program using a common underwriting and pricing platform. The program, which consists of both the cuScholar Private Student Loan and cuGrad Private Student Loan Consolidation, includes loan participations to enhance and mitigate risk. For additional information, visit http://www.custudentloans.org/.

New York, NY (PRWEB) — February 20, 2013

LendKey Technologies (formerly Fynanz, Inc.) has launched an effort to fundraise for the credit union victims of Hurricane Sandy at this year’s upcoming CUNA Governmental Affairs Conference (GAC).

“The destruction caused by Hurricane Sandy was devastating to the New York City area,” said LendKey CEO Vince Passione. “Our employees, and many of our clients, are residents in some of the hardest hit areas of New York and New Jersey. Their perseverance and dedication to their communities inspired us to match their courage with action.”

Accordingly, LendKey has pledged to raise donations for http://www.cuaid.coop, the only national online disaster relief fundraising center for credit union staff, volunteers and members. LendKey will leverage their presence at the GAC to rally additional support for the relief efforts by donating $5.00 for every business card posted to their Goodwill Wall at booth #347.

“We applaud LendKey’s efforts to help credit union people affected by Hurricane Sandy,” said Christopher Morris, Director of Communications at the National Credit Union Foundation. “This can help make a difference in many lives as 100% of the donations through CUAid – every cent of every dollar – goes to credit union disaster relief.”

For more information and to participate, please visit LendKey at booth #347.

About LendKey

LendKey is a cloud-based technology company that provides the essential infrastructure for any party to quickly, securely, efficiently, and profitably lend to anyone else. Its platforms allow anyone to affordably set up a full-scale, fully compliant lending operation within weeks, as well as tap into a community of like-minded lenders. Today, LendKey powers the lending efforts of over 230 financial institutions across private student loans, private student loan refinancing, green home energy loans, and home improvement loans.