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Now onto the show, enjoy this episode's clip and be sure to watch the full episode right below the show notes.

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Joe, can you walk us through this new auto refinance forward flow program with LendKey and Caribou in, in simple terms, what it is and why now, and what you guys are hoping it does for Carter over the next few years?

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Yeah. To, to boil it down.

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Um, and, and as Devin said, this is about as easy as you can make a participation.

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Um, if you're the credit union buyer,

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all you really got to do is to commit to a certain amount of funding over several months.

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And Caribou and Carter and LendKey are going to do everything else.

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Um, so you have the upfront where, you know, the credit union will obviously, uh, research LendKey and Carter and Caribou and underwriting criteria is beforehand and then they just, uh, provide the funding.

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And, uh, as I say, our, our Carter, LendKey and Caribou do all the work from the sourcing of the application to the underwriting, to the processing and closing to the credit servicing, and even the remittance reporting, which LendKey really specializes in.

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So, um, all the work is done and you are getting really, I think, the same yield that you would if you were to go out and buy a $10 million pool on your own.

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So you're getting this convenience mm-hmm.

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And you're not sacrificing yield.

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Um, so as, as far as Carter's concerned, we're not just an active, uh, uh, participant here. We're going to be building our own loan portfolio.

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You know, we're, as the originator, we're keeping 10% of all the loans that we originate.
Oh. And, and these are loans that we want to be adding to our portfolio.

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So we're going to be adding loans to our portfolio in the same way that the other credit union buyers in this program are going to be doing.

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Um, our role, uh, because of our underwriting and because of our, our, uh, credit management, um, we also have an opportunity for fee income and that, you know, is a further in incentive for us and our role in this process. Yeah. Um, but it's a, you know, the, a table stake loan product, right?

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Prime, prime Auto Loans is a key component for anybody's, for any credit union's loan portfolio.

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And so we're always looking at ways to, to supplement that.

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Okay. And this program does that for us.

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Sure. Sounds like it. Sure. Sounds like. All right.

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Last question for you, Devin.

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So you all worked with some of the biggest credit unions in the country, obviously, but this program is clearly meant for credit unions of all sizes, like we said at the very beginning.

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What would you say to small or midsize shops about why now is a good time to explore participations with ALIRO and lend key why now, sir?

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Yep. Uh, I covered a little bit about the rate environment and why that kind of macro trend can be a motivator for folks on the buy side.

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Uh, I also alluded to the sizing, and Joe did as well, the, you know, one of the, the biggest challenges these credit unions face, just to echo Joe, is sizing, right?

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Some of these sellers are not willing to put a pool out for less than five, 10, 20 million.

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And for these smaller credit unions, that's just not attainable for them.
Mm-hmm. Right? As I said this, this will go as low as 500,000 a month.

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Right? So they, and, if you're doing that over the course of the year, like Joe said, that's a, that's a $6 million commitment, right? But you're not putting 6 million over the table on day one.

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Right. You're, you're seeing that time release, so to speak.
Okay. Okay. Kind of experience. And it's much more palatable, uh, for a credit union who,

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who doesn't have all of that right now in,
in liquidity or whatever, whatever format. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. The other piece is,

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and I really like Joe's win-win comment, because some credit unions like Carter in this instance,

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have invested a lot of time, money, infrastructure into, uh,
and expertise into generating these quality assets, right?

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Through partnerships with Caribou and others, maybe internal indirect channels.

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But, but that investment, the, the value of that investment can be shared
with other credit unions in the ecosystem and in that win-win format.

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And we love it when kind of quote, what's best for Carter mm-hmm.

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Is also great value for others. And this is one of those instances, right?

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Um, so the fact that we try to automate everything and keep the lift, uh, as low as possible, uh, and, you know, some of those macro headwinds,

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and some of the accessibility or approachability of the size commitments in here, just it,

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it's a great, great opportunity for folks heading into 2026.