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Rallying for Growth

How Rally Credit Union Grew Their Membership with the Right Lending Partner

Client Stories
15%
15%

Commercial Loan Growth

8
8

Hours Saved Per Loan

72
72

Hours Faster to Approval

Solutions Used

The solution has all the points along the journey. Within Baker Hill, we start by pulling credit, capturing drivers’ license images, personal financial statements, and tax returns. We then capture HMDA information for compliance, and the platform ends with a strong integration with the Fiserv DNA core and TruStage Compliance Solutions loan documentation.

Maria Karaca

Senior VP of Member Business Lending

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The Challenge

Like many community credit unions, Rally struggled to “do more” without increasing costs. To reach their full potential, the team at Rally had to think “outside of the box” and needed to leverage technology that would allow them to have more consistency and fewer errors through more automated smart lending workflows. As SVP of Member Business Lending Maria Karaca shared, “Our previous process involved another solution that would capture some of the application data, which would then be entered into our CUSO underwriting solution and then ultimately into our core. We had three different data entry points that were costing us time, money, and creating errors.”

Another challenge faced by the team at Rally was finding and retaining the right credit and lending talent. As their market grew in scale and complexity, they needed access to strong underwriters who understood the nuances and complexities of member business lending and who could synergize with their local teams. To get the level of talent Rally desired, they required a solution that would empower collaborative experiences around the nation — and the world.

“In our previous lending process, our staff was stretched too thin, and we were subject to attrition risk. In our market, we had to focus on retaining talent and creating a positive experience for them. We needed something that would leverage data in multiple instances and not require a lender on our team to have to ask two or three times to capture the same information for a loan request.”

The team at Rally had many locations “deep in the heart of Texas,” but they also knew they needed to think beyond their current service area to stay competitive in an increasingly fast-paced and connected world. As Rally’s footprint expanded, they needed a partner with a connected ecosystem that would provide them with digital solutions to meet the needs of new member business owners. It was also vital that the technology partner had established integrations that would enable them to move away from pen and paper to a modern API-driven interface for scalable growth.

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The Solution

In January of 2022, the team at Rally chose Baker Hill NextGen® Commercial Loan Origination along with Baker Hill NextGen® Online Application to transform their member business experience and drive growth. Maria shared, “Member Business customers were wanting a more streamlined approach similar to the consumer experience that they had become accustomed to, and we needed to replicate that. We were looking for a solution that had an online application, the ability to upload financials and tax returns, and then view and spread those financials in one centralized location.”

Baker Hill was a natural fit for Rally’s team, bringing an end-to-end application, underwriting, and document preparation solution together to improve efficiency and consistency. Maria continued, “The solution has all the points along the journey. Within Baker Hill, we start by pulling credit, capturing drivers’ license images, personal financial statements, and tax returns. We then capture HMDA information for compliance, and the platform ends with a strong integration with the Fiserv DNA core and TruStage Compliance Solutions loan documentation.”

Additionally, Rally’s team was impressed by the solution’s ability to create ticklers and tracking items. “Having a loan tickler tracking system is amazing! It was key to have automated reminders digitally go out to our members through the online portal — this was manual before, and now with this, our annual reviews are much more efficient.” The flexibility of the various types of ticklers and exception items that can be set up and configured, along with how they interact with different member-facing experiences, truly changes how Rally engages their employees and members. “We had these diverse data entry points that were costing us time and not improving the member experience. We needed a centralized point of entry for our staff and for our members to ensure operational efficiencies and regulatory compliance.” Baker Hill NextGen® provides the Rally team with the necessary framework to connect their data together across various departments and processes.

The Results

Rally Credit Union’s purpose is clear: “Improve Lives. Drive Possibilities.” From their charter in 1955 as Naval Employees Corpus Christi Federal Credit Union, their mission has been to help their members meet their financial goals quicker and better serve their community.

Thanks to their partnership with Baker Hill, not only was Rally able to achieve their 15% growth goal, but they were able to find innovative ways to improve their employee and member experience along the way. Maria shared that “The lender experience has been improved significantly because they’re no longer doing triple data entry. We are able to eliminate over 8 hours per loan because we no longer have to scan documents, send them to a lending assistant, pull credit, and get information into other departments on the back end. A large portion of the loan application process has also been pushed to the member via the online portal, so the system is doing the work once the application is complete and submitted, and our members can see where their loans are at any given time.”

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Rally’s partnership with Baker Hill has been able to deliver on their mission of helping their members meet their financial goals quicker. By automating the lending process, their response time for loan decisions has improved by 3 days. Lenders can now get an answer to their borrowers in a few days, not weeks. “Our members can see where their loans are at any given time. Also, our executive team has much better reporting, so they can see the loan turn downs, what lenders are working on, and the reasons why loans are approved or declined based on our credit policy.”

Rally Credit Union believes in cheering for their members every step of the way. Thanks to their partnership with Baker Hill and their commitment to innovation, Rally’s team has been able to hit their growth targets and now has an even bigger membership to cheer for!

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