Client success story

Capital Credit Union

A member-owned financial institution serving more than 30,000 members across Scotland, with a focus on making affordable lending accessible to its communities. Partnering with LendingMetrics to implement its Auto Decision Platform, CCU has reduced time to decision by 75%, doubled loan volumes without additional underwriters and created greater capacity to support new lending propositions and continued growth. 

About Capital Credit Union

Established: 1989
Industry: Credit Unions
Products: ADP

Capital Credit Union : Making affordable credit accessible across Scotland with ADP

The challenge

Capital Credit Union (CCU) found their loan decision time hindered their ability to process more applications and, consequently, serve more customers. And so, LendingMetrics was chosen as a strategic partner to tackle these challenges and increase their loan volumes without employing additional staff or extending manual processes. Previously, they had a sizeable loans team, required to process applications, but with the implementation of ADP, resources were effectively freed up enabling the staff to focus on more productive and customer-focused aspects of the business.

Capital Credit Union now serves over 30,000 members, encompassing a broad spectrum of financial situations and challenges. The credit union viewed ADP as an opportunity to enhance their traditional processes and transition sustainably to a level that would support their growth ambitions. Over recent months, we have worked closely with them to configure our platform to their specific needs, enabling them to offer clients more options for their lending propositions and assist them in further increasing their loan volumes.

The solution

From the initial business case to project management, we have assisted Capital Credit Union in integrating our automated decision-making solution. Since implementing ADP, the credit union has seen a 75% improvement in their time to decision, allowing them to sustain double the loan volumes without needing additional underwriters. Furthermore, as ADP is inherently consistent and data-driven, CCU can reduce ‘grey areas’ in their credit policy and process thousands of applications each month, improving the dependability of decision making. In addition to these operational benefits, ADP significantly aids CCU in meeting The FCA’s Consumer Duty regulations. The platform allows CCU to control the core rules of the decision engine and make amendments in line with regulatory requirements, ensuring they are lending responsibly and delivering good outcomes for their customers. By leveraging automated decisioning software into their business processes, CCU has been able to free up staffing and focus on more strategic, high-impact projects, leading to some exciting developments.

Recently, Capital Credit Union launched their ‘Fair Fan Finance’ scheme, enabling Scottish sports clubs to offer low-cost season ticket loans to their fans or members. Fans who choose this finance option also become members of the credit union, giving them access to a range of benefits and products including savings, loans, and mortgages. During the 2023/24 football season, over 1200 Hibernian F.C. season tickets were purchased through Capital Credit Union. These developments were facilitated by the implementation of ADP, which provides the scalability and consistency necessary to provide such innovative products and services.

ADP is a scalable solution that grows with you. With the combined efforts of Capital Credit Union’s in-house team and our ADP solution, CCU has been able to scale their business exponentially without increasing overheads. In recent news, Capital Credit Union’s loan book has exceeded £25m for the first time and they expect a growth figure of £6m in the coming year.

The future

With a maximum population potential of 3 million, Capital Credit Union strives to break into new markets and better serve the Scottish community. Since 2022, CCU has gained over 5,500 new members, the ADP solution has enabled them to attract more members by providing a frictionless and expedited process for those applying for a loan.

By leveraging the strengths of real-time decisioning, CCU aims to continue to improve their customer experience by offering more features and products. Moving forward, our ARC team will assist Capital Credit Union by providing analytical support to enhance their decision processes enabling them to make more data-driven decisions through the actionable insights provided by ADP. We will offer training and guidance on ADP and credit risk, analyse and design both existing and bespoke scorecards, and support any decision engine changes.

Providing they can draw in sufficient savings to support lending; Capital Credit Union anticipates becoming a £50m plus organisation within the next three years and we will continue to support their business operations.