LMCU. Where members are neighbors and down payments are low

With Argyle, LMCU lowers mortgage verification costs, accelerates close times, and enhances their member experience.

Lake Michigan Credit Union (LMCU) has been helping members optimize their finances for over 90 years. They offer a wide range of services—from high-yield checking and savings accounts to custom insurance and retirement plans to hassle-free mortgages and auto loans—designed to return maximum rewards for minimal investment. Thanks to their trusted history and member-first business model, LMCU has grown to become one of the largest credit unions in the U.S., as well as Michigan’s leading mortgage provider.

To continue offering the most competitive products to their members, LMCU was looking for a way to address rising loan verification costs, particularly those resulting from manual processes and high third-party fees. They found an answer in Argyle, along with faster turnaround times and a better member experience.

Challenge

To close a loan, LMCU needs to at least verify that a borrower is employed, if not run a complete verification of employment (VOE) report with work history and income details. This used to involve collecting documents like paystubs and W-2s and manually processing the data, which (between contacting employers, requesting and filling out forms, and dealing with errors) could take days or weeks. In some cases, employers would only submit records via a third-party service like The Work Number (TWN), requiring LMCU to set up an account and incur extra expenses to purchase a report.

All in all, this meant LMCU faced variable, unpredictable time and cost barriers just to get the data they needed to serve their members.

Solution

LMCU became aware of emerging solutions that would allow them to connect to a borrower’s payroll account and pull income and employment data in real time. At first, they turned to one of Argyle’s competitors, but this vendor didn’t fully understand how to apply their own technology in the mortgage process.

In contrast, Argyle’s platform was mortgage-ready, and Argyle’s team was equipped to guide the rollout across different functions, from loan processors to originators to other lines of business. Now, LMCU’s loan officers can deploy Argyle at the outset of an origination and get real-time answers about a borrower’s income and employment, then use that same, ongoing connection to run a pre-close VOE report. Argyle’s solution isn’t just faster and more cost-effective than manual processes and TWN—leading to more efficient, affordable services and higher conversion rates—it yields deeper and more accurate insights. Beyond basic income data, LMCU can access details like what a borrower makes shift by shift and instantly pull documents like paystubs and W-2s. This not only means quicker close times, it allows LMCU to process more applications, so they can confidently expand their market.

Outcome

• From weeks to seconds: Verifying a borrower’s employment via manual processes and/or TWN used to take LMCU up to three weeks; with Argyle, it’s done in under a minute.

• Reduced costs: Inefficiencies and high third-party fees led to rising verification costs, but Argyle’s automated solution reduces LMCU’s operational expenses, allowing them to pass rate savings on to their members.

• Enhanced member experience: With Argyle, LMCU can access data and documents any time they need without requiring borrowers to upload forms, leading to a better onboarding experience and improved engagement.

“Competition is fierce among banks and credit unions. You have to differentiate yourself, and one of the key indicators is speed. Argyle’s cutting-edge technology allows us to improve our turnaround times, so we can close faster, with a better borrower experience, and with fewer gaps late in the process.”

Ereic Schlagheck

Director of Mortgage Processing, Lake Michigan Credit Union