CDFI Increased Applications Volume By 400%

Background / Opportunity

BetterFi is an American consumer lender based in Tennessee that has recently become a CDFI. As a non-profit economic justice enterprise, the team’s mission is to provide affordable loans and financial coaching to unbanked and underbanked populations. The end goal is to get their clients out from under the onerous terms of predatory lenders.

Borrowers can use the funds to cover emergency cash needs, strengthen their financial fitness, improve their credit scores, and increase access to conventional financing.

Business Problem

BetterFi’s credit counselors were spending the majority of their time manually processing applications, instead of working with clients. They believed they could help many more people, if they could replace outdated technology with modern cloud-based tools.

A list of business requirements was compiled in order to kick-off a technology search, including some needs that were unique to non-profit corporations. For example, a small staff, a limited budget, and specialized government reports for registered charitable organizations.

With TurnKey Lender, the entire origination process is automatic and takes about 15 minutes. It works great for us and lets us be really transparent with our borrowers.

Spike Hosch

Founder and Executive Director

The wishlist for the new lending solution included these features:

1. Fully-managed, cloud-based platform
2. Streamlined processes and workflows that would eliminate manual steps, and reduce human error
3. Reliable, cybersecure, and regulatory compliant
4. Scalable with robust functionality to support anticipated growth
5. Alternative credit scoring applications that could qualify borrowers with poor credit or thin credit
6. Outstanding user experience
7. Data synchronized across departments and platforms
8. Easy to maintain and upgrade with limited in-house IT support
9. Efficient, paperless system
10. End-to-end automation for application submission, application review, credit scoring, funds transfer, payments processing, collections management, and timely reporting
11. Strong technical support, and customer service support
12. Flexible to accommodate custom products and services
13. Intuitive design that’s easy to set-up, easy to learn, and easy to use for both credit counselors and borrowers
14. Affordable and cost-effective
15. System access from desktop and mobile devices

Solution

BetterFi chose the award-winning TurnKey Lender as their technology platform partner.

The majority of requirements were already included as part of the pre-programmed functionality in the consumer lending platform. Several unique features, and the system’s integrations, were easily coded to create a custom solution. The customer front-office was white-labeled with the BetterFi brand to weave the lending module into the website for a seamless user experience.

This custom, comprehensive, cross-platform lending system was fully deployed within weeks.

Results

BetterFi improved their operational processes, which gained precious time they can now devote to their clients.

1. Reduced origination time from days to minutes
2. Increased the number of applications processed by 400%
3. Increased operational efficiencies, saving time and money
4. Generated substantial cost efficiencies that more than pay for their state-of-the-art lending platform
5. Credit counselors are working with more clients, and spending more one-on-one time with each client
6. Executive team and board are developing expansion plans to tap into new markets

Watch the success story TurnKey Lender has made with BetterFi