Partnership Brings Advanced LOS Technology To Credit Unions

In a very competitive market, you need every edge. That’s why CUSO Home Lending went through an exhaustive search for a new LOS to roll out to all its members. “We were using Finestra’s Mortgagebot product,” said CUSO Home Lending President and CEO Lori Michaud. “We knew our contracts were coming up on the origination and servicing side, so we wanted to invest in robust technology and that’s what we did.”

Specifically, CUSO Home Lending has made the Empower LOS, a cloud-based loan origination system from Dark Matter Technologies (Dark Matter), available to its credit union owners. CUSO Home Lending is the first credit union service organization to leverage Empower’s newly developed joint-venture feature, which allows credit unions to offer individualized branding, products and pricing while taking advantage of the efficiency and cost savings of their CUSO’s shared services model.

“The shared services model is alive and well in the credit union space because it’s a smart strategy for maximizing efficiency, cost savings and scalability — the very same benefits Dark Matter’s Empower delivers for lenders of all kinds,” said Dark Matter CEO Rich Gagliano. “We are proud to introduce expanded support for joint ventures that frees credit unions to offer customized member experiences while reaping all the benefits of the CUSO model. CUSO Home Lending is driving innovation as the first CUSO to implement this new feature set.”

“We decided to start on the backend,” added Michaud. “We went with Black Knight and started with the backend. A lot has changed with the acquisition, but I still think we made the right decision. Finestra was not investing at the level that we needed. The implementation with Dark Matter was seamless.”

Headquartered in Hampden, Maine, CUSO Home Lending is a credit union service organization and licensed mortgage company owned by credit unions and the Maine Credit Union League. For 30 years, CUSO Home Lending has supported its owner credit unions and the communities they serve with cost-effective access to mortgage fulfillment services, loan servicing and origination technology.

Based on what Dark Matter had and their roadmap for the future, we knew that this was the right partner. Also, they offered great support. Our old vendor outsourced support so we would wait days. We need instant support,” said Michaud.

“Technology has become a central focus of our business strategy because of the value it drives for our credit union owners and partners, and the superior mortgage experience it enables us to deliver to consumers,” she concluded. “We evaluated a lot of potential origination technologies, and Dark Matter’s Empower LOS stood out for its highly advanced automation, the knowledge of its staff and its ability to individualize our credit unions’ sites with their own branding, products and pricing.”