June 23, 2026
Like a lot of us, TopLine Financial Credit Union was feeling old.
Founded in 1935, the Minnesota financial institution had a mission to be there for folks at every stage of life. The problem was that their current membership was aging and TopLine needed to grow its younger member base.
“When I started, we had an average member age creeping over 50,” says Mick Olson, President and CEO of TopLine. “That’s quite high for an average.”
The credit union wanted to diversify its product offerings with the goal of attracting new members. Mick explains, “We really wanted to establish relationships with younger generations so we could continue that financial journey together, buying a home, buying a car, or whatever the next step may be.”
A serendipitous start with student loans
TopLine decided to partner with LendKey to offer private student loans to its members. This was back in 2010 when Mick was the CFO. At the time, the CEO was reluctant to take on too much unsecured credit, and it took some convincing to bring student loans into the product mix.
What won leadership over were the many program advantages. Through LendKey’s network lending model, TopLine could originate a loan and immediately participate out 90% of it, retaining just 10% of the risk while keeping the member relationship. Plus, the due diligence was manageable and the internal lift was low. There were no new staff to hire; LendKey handled servicing, payments, reporting, and member customer service from day one.
“Once we identified the benefits, the structure of it, that really got some traction,” Mick recalls. “We were able to show the projections, and those have really proven out.”
The results have been so strong that in 2022, TopLine expanded their partnership with LendKey to include student loan refinancing, offering support to members as they complete their degrees and transition into repayment.
Feeling 10 years younger
The results from the full TopLine case study show that over the past 15 years with LendKey, TopLine has funded $21.2 million in education loans, brought in more than 400 new members, and helped over 800 members fund their education. The year-to-date return sits at a healthy 6% with minimal defaults.
Notably, nearly 40% of the new members TopLine gained through student lending have gone on to open additional products with the credit union.
“Education lending allows us to expand our relationship with members and their families, and even through to that next generation,” Mick says. “We want to be there for people’s first checking accounts, first savings accounts, right through to their first credit card and auto loans. This program helps us to do that.”
TopLine’s average member age has dropped from the low fifties to the low forties.
As easy as turning on the faucet
One of the biggest benefits of the LendKey program is how it adjusts to meet a credit union’s needs. If TopLine finds itself in a tight liquidity position, the team simply dials back participation volume. When conditions ease, they turn it back up. The faucet, as Mick describes it, can be opened or closed at any time.
That flexibility, combined with the low operational burden, makes LendKey a strategic asset for any credit union. Nothing needs to be built from scratch – the landing page on the TopLine website links to a co-branded LendKey portal. Members find it, apply through it, and LendKey takes it from there. TopLine achieves faster digital adoption and product expansion without major infrastructural overhauls.
Ready for the next 90 years
TopLine recently surpassed $1.1 billion in assets with over 70,000 members. Through it all, Mick and his team have kept the same focus: to serve members at every stage of their financial lives.
Thanks to their LendKey partnership, TopLine is meeting their goals for growth while maintaining that youthful glow.
Hear Mick Olson tell the full story on the 22 Minutes in Lending podcast and read the TopLine Financial case study to see the numbers behind it.