Listen: How automation is boosting PenFed’s annual origination assets to $15B

PenFed owes its multibillion-dollar growth in total and origination assets to a sweeping automation overhaul.  The McLean, Va.-based credit union has automated much of its front- and back-end business processes, including origination platforms, decisioning and modelling capabilities, and credit-processing functions. And these technology overhauls were not just for show.  Automation helped the credit union grow origination annual assets to $15 billion and total assets to more than $34 billion in a few years' time, Jay Fee, PenFed vice president of consumer banking, tells Bank Automation News in this episode of “The Buzz” podcast. “Origination annual assets when I got here a few years ago were $2 billion a year,” Fee says. “We're at around $15 billion for this year. That's been done through standing up a lot of new channels, a lot of new products, a lot of new automation features, and integration with over 35 different fintech partners.”  While customer response has been largely positive, Fee tells BAN that PenFed’s automation journey is only “halfway” done, with backlogs going well into 2023. Prioritization is essential for credit unions looking to improve technology processes, Adelina Grozdanova, head of investor group at banking fintech Upgrade, tells BAN. Upgrade offers digital banking, lending and card solutions to more than 100 credit unions and is one of PenFed’s fintech partners.  “We have to think about what else the credit union is working on,” Grozdanova says. “Some of them are thinking about core conversions. Some of them are thinking about improving their own member experience. Some of them are refreshing entire back-end systems. I think the first challenge for us is just making sure that we're in the right priority.” Listen as Fee and Grozdanova share insights and best practices for automating at community credit unions.