The Future of Lending: How Origence is Empowering Credit Unions Through Innovation

By John San Filippo

The 2025 edition of the Origence Lending Tech Live conference was held June 16-18 in Nashville, Tenn. The conference opened with a presentation by the CUSO’s CEO Tony Boutelle. Afterwards, Boutelle met with Finopotamus for a deeper dive into some of the topics discussed during his presentation.

Boutelle believes that embracing artificial intelligence (AI), embedded finance and e-contracting is paramount for credit unions to thrive in an increasingly competitive auto lending landscape. These technological advancements are not merely enhancements but critical tools for credit unions to boost efficiency, reduce costs, and elevate the member experience, ensuring credit unions’ ability to compete with larger financial institutions.

Tony Boutelle offers a state-of-the-CUSO address at Lending Tech Live 25

“This [Trump] administration has made more changes in the first six months than anyone I’ve ever experienced,” Boutelle stated in his opening address at Lending Tech Live, highlighting the current climate of rapid change, including “uncertainties of tariffs, interest rates, hopefully coming down at some point,” and the accelerating impact of “artificial intelligence.” This sentiment underscores the urgency for credit unions to adapt and innovate.

Meeting Auto Buyers Online with Embedded Finance

A cornerstone of Origence’s strategy is enabling credit unions to connect with consumers at the beginning of their auto financing journey. Boutelle noted that consumers are “starting their journey online and you’re trying to get in at the front end rather than at the back end.” The shift is particularly evident among car-buying websites, where financing is now often initiated online. Companies like CarMax, Carvana, and AutoNation are at the forefront of this trend, with some even establishing their own finance companies, Boutelle added.

Origence is actively developing embedded finance solutions to integrate credit unions directly into this online car-buying process. The vision is for a seamless experience where an auto buyer on a vehicle website would see an option for credit union financing. A key, Boutelle explained, is knowing what credit union a given member is eligible for. “When [the site asks], do you want credit union financing … it’ll come back with the right credit union because we could match them.” This capability is already being implemented with Tesla, a partnership that has facilitated “well over a billion dollars of loans.” Origence is also in discussions with “10 other very large players” in the auto retail space to expand this embedded finance model.

A significant challenge in this endeavor is securely matching auto loan applicants to their respective credit unions without compromising privacy. To be more precise in this approach, Origence has developed a patent-pending algorithm that uses “little pieces of PII” (personally identifiable information) to “match members without exposing that and do that instantaneously,” Boutelle said. While the technology is proven and a “few signed up now that are doing it,” he acknowledged that convincing credit unions to share even encrypted member lists remains an obstacle due to their inherent protectiveness of member data.

Driving Efficiency with AI and Automation in Auto Lending

Artificial intelligence is a core component of Origence’s strategy to enhance efficiency and reduce operational costs for credit unions in auto lending. Boutelle cited industry predictions, noting that recent McKinsey & Company research estimates “50% of the tasks that we do in banking today will be AI driven in the future.” Similarly, Accenture forecasts a “20 to 30%” reduction in costs for financial institutions over the next five years (through proper AI implementation).

One of the most impactful applications of AI in the auto loans space is in document processing automation. Boutelle described DPA as “the beginning of humanless loans,” enabling faster approvals and funding with minimal human intervention. He provided compelling examples of DPA’s success within credit unions. The $22.5 billion, 1.5-million-member America First Credit Union, headquartered in Riverdale, Utah, and the largest credit union on the Origence platform, is funding 14% of its auto loans without human intervention. By increasing funded deals from 24 to 32 per day, the credit union achieved a 33% gain in efficiencies. The $2.5 billion, 148,000-member Consumers Credit Union, headquartered in Kalamazoo, Mich., has seen an even higher rate, with 18% of auto loans processed humanlessly, boosting daily funded loans from 10.5 to 19. (In a separate interview, Finopotamus met with representatives from Origence and Consumers Credit Union to discuss DPA in more detail, an article about which is forthcoming.)

E-contracting further streamlines the auto loan process, working hand-in-hand with DPA, Boutelle explained. E-contracting facilitates a “digital contract that is done at the dealership with the member in front of them,” eliminating paper and relying solely on digital signatures, he said. This digital approach allows for rapid validation and funding back to the dealer. Additionally, this capability is in high demand by “the big dealer groups in particular” that “are really requiring this” for both efficiency and compliance, Boutelle added.

The Imperative for Credit Unions to Adapt

Boutelle underscored the critical need for credit unions to embrace these technological shifts in auto lending. “If we don’t stay in this AI game, we are not going to be around long,” he asserted, pointing to the significant investments in AI being made by major banks like Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Chase. He argued that if these banks can reduce their costs by 20% through AI, it would drastically impact the rates they could offer, making it difficult for credit unions to compete.

Beyond AI, Boutelle also discussed the importance of modernizing existing platforms. He emphasized the need for credit unions to update systems that are “five, 10 years old,” noting Origence’s own investments in moving to a “cloud native” environment, expanding its application programming interface (API) ecosystem, and focusing on AI-enabled automation. This modernization, he explained, is done seamlessly “without you guys noticing.”

In conclusion, Boutelle’s message to credit unions is clear: The future of auto lending is digital, efficient, and AI-driven. By proactively adopting technologies like embedded finance, document processing automation, and e-contracting, credit unions can not only compete but also thrive by providing a superior and more efficient experience for their members. His ultimate vision, and that of Origence, is to collaborate with credit unions “to create the ultimate origination experience” for their members.