cu brochure
DESCRIPTION
Credit Union software brochure.TRANSCRIPT
With inbuilt and automated ability to repay calculations and generation of credit scores, let Wellington assist you in making informed lending decisions and lower bad debt.
LENDING DECISIONS AREINCREASINGLY DIFFICULT TO GET RIGHT IN THE CURRENT CLIMATE.
PERFECT FOR THE FAST PACE OF CHANGE IN THE CREDIT UNION WORLD, OUR PROACTIVE INTELLIGENT SOFTWARE DELIVERS MUCH GREATER INSIGHT INTO YOUR BUSINESS AT EVERY LEVEL.
Established in 1983, Wellington IT Solutions have worked with many of the leading businesses in our chosen markets and have anenviable track-record in partnering with credit unions since 1990.
The company’s mission statement is to offer:
• Integrity demonstrated with openness and ethical behaviour • Excellence of service • Technical leadership
As a leader in software and service solutions for credit unions, our LOCUS software is an advanced and comprehensive package whichincorporates all the latest developments and requirements, offering our customers substantial added-value. We are partnered with some of the most progressive credit unions whose business insights are re�ected in our products and services, and our staff are among the most talented and committed in the industry.
We are fully committed to continuous development and with our regular release policy, we provide constant evolution and innovation in our products and services.
LOCUS is scalable and is very parameter-driven, allowing the same software to be deployed across a wide-range of size and type of Credit Union.
How your Credit Union meets future challenges will be determined by your ability to leverage technology to respond to the threats and opportunities in this evolving market, as well as respond successfully to increased regulatory pressures.
LOCUS has been engineered to offer the Credit Union community a best-of-breed, out-of-the-box answer to many of the challenges in today’s market. LOCUS offers the Credit Union a modern core system with integrated channels with which to service your Members needs.
Offering a full range of banking options, straight-through-processing of payments, Member electroniccommunications including ATM, on-line web services, text messaging, e-mail and Interactive Voice Response systems, Wellington provide the product architecture and services so necessary for the modern Credit Union.
All our systems are built on the very best technology available, including Oracle and Microsoft with security standards right up to ISO 27001.
STAYING AHEAD IN A CHANGING WORLD
We understand your business and the challenges faced, large and small. Using the “member not present” transaction a receipt will be produced with no balance information.
PRIVACY OF BALANCE INFORMATION IS ESSENTIAL, BUT IT IS COMMON FOR A MEMBER TO LODGE MONEY INTOANOTHER FAMILY MEMBERS ACCOUNT.
LOCUS has been designed to capitalize upon the most strategic asset the Credit Union has – its relationship with its Members. This is manifested in the information that the Credit Union must naturally acquire in its dealings with its membership. Rich information content is stored in LOCUS using an Oracle database and offers a fully featured, high data quality, strategic information management platform. The recent trend within the Financial Services Industry has been to replace many disparate systems with as few as possible. Multiple systems are costly to manage and maintain, often requiring whole IT Departments to manage and keep synchronized, leading to a search for a more uni�ed approach to Information Management. This approach is already inherent within LOCUS, engineered with superior data management capabilities offering lower costs; a vital tool for Credit Unions in shaping their future and defending their position in the marketplace.
New Product Launch ComponentLOCUS has been engineered to allow the Credit Union to respond to competition and remain responsive to Member’s needs by enabling the Credit Union to de�ne new products and business rules.
LOCUS automatically and dynamicallyrecon�gures to accommodate new products, supported and controlled by business rules, limits and thresholds, enabling the Credit Union to keep relevant to the Membership in the face of increased competition and new business challenges.
Front Of�ce Component The core LOCUS product offers full and fast Teller processing. In addition to fast and simple processing of all transactions normally expected by Credit Unions, the point of Member contact also offers a wide range ofinformation about the Member and their accounts. Documentation can be automatically and inexpensively produced from the LOCUS Forms Library.
A full range of members services may be offered and recorded at the front counter and tellers can access all relevant data, including images/signature samples to help process transactions quickly and ef�ciently. Tellers may use various devices attached to LOCUS to acquire information easily, including cheque readers and debit card readers for inbound payments. These devices seamlessly integrate with the full cash management component for simple end-of-day processing.
FUNCTIONALITY WITH ROOM TO GROWTHE CORE LOCUS SYSTEM HAS BEEN ENGINEERED TO OFFER ADVANCED FUNCTIONALITY AS STANDARD, OFFERING THE CREDIT UNION MASSIVE ADDED-VALUE AND FAST RETURN-ON-INVESTMENT.
KEY FEATURESONE CORE DATABASE FOR RICH 360° MEMBER RELATIONSHIP
INTEGRATED FRONT OFFICE, BACK OFFICE, REPORTING AND
AUTOMATED BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT OF TASKSCREATE NEW SAVINGS, LOANS AND DEPOSIT PRODUCTS AND
COMPREHENSIVE REPORTING SUITE AS STANDARDHIGH LEVELS OF ACCESS CONTROL, MONITORING AND AUDITABILITY BUILT IN LOAN ORIGINATION TOOLS TO MANAGE RISK AND
OFFER MEMBERS THE WIDEST CHOICE OF PAYMENTS SERVICES
MANAGEMENT
COMPLIANCE BUILT-IN
BUSINESS RULES
DELINQUENCY
Back Of�ce ComponentOperational ef�ciencies come as standard with LOCUS. The Credit Union can schedule tasks forautomatic processing without costly overtime working. A comprehensive suite of standard reports is available to cover practically every aspect of the operational side of the business.
Loan Origination ComponentRisk Management in lending is a key to Credit Unions success and LOCUS offers as standard a full range of risk management tools. All too often a Credit Union’s resources are almost exclusively focused on chasing debt, which is not only very time consuming, but also very costly.LOCUS supports the whole of the
lending process from assessment ofrisk up-front, managing the work�ow of the collection process, to managing the written-off debt.
Compliance & Reporting ComponentHigh levels of security and audit enable each Credit Union to de�ne and re�ect the necessary authorities and access controls consistent with style of operation and division-of-responsibility policies. In-built exception monitoring ensures key events are managed as a matter of form. In particular, LOCUS can aggregate correctly the Member information spread out over all accounts, accurately satisfying your statutory obligations in terms of Regulatory reporting and provisioning.
With a photograph and signature displayed on the teller screen for all accounts, detection of attempted fraud will be much easier. Member ID cards requiring ver�cation by PIN at the counter can also be issued to further increase security.
UNFORTUNATELY FAMILY FRAUD DOES EXIST AND CAN BE HARD TO DETECT.
Credit Unions are in the business of lending to their Members. As times have changed and the demographics of membership within the traditional common bond have changed, it becomes harder for the Credit Union to assess the risks involved in the lending process. Credit Unions need to handle and store an increased amount of information to help assess the risks in lending and also deal with compliance. This is necessary to protect their savers interests and justify the lending decision. LOCUS has a set of integrated components which allow the management of the lending process from policy through to collection.
PolicyLOCUS can enforce Board decisions to set limits and thresholds for loan types, by value, duration and role. For example, a lending policy may enforce the business rule that only senior staff can authorize loans within a de�ned range or category and certain loan categories must be paid back with timeframes commensurate with their purpose.Authorizations can be tightly controlled so that the amount of risk can only be assessed by the Board, Credit Committee, Loans
Of�cers of varying experience, or Staff in the case of secured loans.
ApprovalUnderstanding the nature of lending risks taken against a backdrop of volatile economic uncertainty means arming yourself with the very best protection, and that protection isinformation. Information is the lifeblood of making informed lending decisions, and LOCUS is a rich repository of not only internal information, but also credit reference data which can be accessed on-line if required.
LOCUS Ability-To-Repay (ATR) provides guidance to the Credit Union. The historical information acquired by the Credit Union over time can also be used to credit score based upon the Credit Unions own weighted criteria.
Once a Credit Union has determined that the Member has the means to repay, it can further protect itself by recording collateral which can include and track guarantors automatically, and record against which loan(s) collateral has been used in the LOCUS Collateral Registry. LOCUS produces all documentation automatically, including insurance documents such as Health Declarations.
LENDING AND RISK MANAGEMENTPREVENTION IS ALWAYS BETTER THAN CURE. LOCUS PROVIDES AN INTEGRATED TOOL-BOX TO MANAGE THE LENDING RISK, RIGHT FROM BOARD POLICY, THROUGH APPROVALS, TO COLLECTION. INTEGRATION MEANS INSTANT AWARENESS OF ANY CHANGES TO THE RISK PROFILE OF LOANS.
KEY FEATURESHIGH DATA QUALITY UNDERPINNED BY ONE COHERENT ORACLE DATABASE
CREDIT REFERENCE AGENCY GATEWAYS, INCLUDING ON-LINE ACCESS
AUTOMATIC ABILITY-TO-REPAY GUIDENCE
SCORECARD FRAMEWORK BASED UPON CREDIT UNION DATA
COLLATERAL MANAGEMENT BUILT-IN, INCLUDING GUARANTOR TRACKING
DOCUMENT PRODUCTION, STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL
ARREARS MANAGEMENT & DELINQUENCY WORKFLOW
INTEGRATED CHARGED-OFF LOANS
WIDE VARIETY OF MEMBER COMMUNICATION METHODS
CollectionsCredit Unions can de�ne their own Credit Control policy within LOCUS, which will then apply those business rules consistently. Tasks and steps can be de�ned, (including costs and fees), and LOCUS automatically assesses the arrears situation and creates the appropriate work-�ow. This can be batches of letters, lists of phone-calls, visits, legal actions, etc as per policy. LOCUS also provides full reporting and analysis of debt and provisioning, together with feedback of which steps give the greatest success in reducing arrears. Where a Member is struggling to meet their repayments, a temporary agreement can bemade and tracked separately in addition to the original repayment agreement. In the unfortunate position of a debt being written-off,it is still tracked by LOCUS in the integrated Charged-off Loan component.
Member CommunicationsLOCUS offers the widest range of communication channels to the Membership, including letters, e-mail, text messaging, automated phone enquiry and online bankingservices.
Increasingly becoming an expectation of the modern Member, Wellington can provide these high level services to your Credit Union, fully integrated with your core LOCUS application for ease of use and administration.
LOCUS automatically tracks the relevant member details to enable the production of information for Death Claims at the touch of a button.
CLAIM PROCESSING CAN BE A LENGTHY AND UNNECESSARILY ERROR-PRONE MANUAL TASK.
In the world of personal �nance, there has always been an objective on the part of �nancial institutions to have an exclusive relationship with the individual, but in reality all have found that total 100% ‘share of wallet’ is an illusion – people tend to use different institutions for various aspects of their lives, be it mortgages, leasing, business loans, personal loans, all of which attract differing levels of cost and risk to the Institution.
Credit Unions are strong in the area of personal lending, which is a prime competency, but to transact business in an easy and convenient way they want to offer appropriate methods to do business. With LOCUS, Credit Unions can offer their Membership a range of electronic facilities, making it easier to compliment their core business of savings and lending, by making it convenient to enable funds to �ow into and out of the Credit Union in a controlled and secure way.
Counter operations are key to many credit unions, and LOCUS can handle many differing types of receipt and statement, including passbooks, mini-statements and even electronic e-statements. LOCUS is fast at the counter, handling cash and multiple books
LOCUS PAYMENT SERVICES – CONVENIENCE FOR YOUR MEMBERCREDIT UNIONS NOW TAKE THEIR PLACE ALONG SIDE OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS BY OFFERING A RANGE OF PAYMENT SERVICES AND OPTIONS TO THEIR MEMBERSHIP.
KEY FEATURESELECTRONIC MANDATES CAN DISBURSE INCOMING FUNDS ACROSS ACCOUNTS
AUTOMATED INBOUND DIRECT DEBIT PROCESSING, INCLUDING UNPAIDS
ATM PROCESSING, BOTH STAND-ALONE AND CURRENTLY VIA TWO LOCAL BANKS
BILL PAYMENTS FROM FRONT-COUNTER AND ONLINE VIA THE CREDIT UNION WEBSITE
PAY BILLS BY PERMITTING DIRECT DEBITS FROM MEMBER ACCOUNT
PAYPOINT INTEGRATION
INBOUND DEBIT CARD PAYMENTS
SECURE, TAMPER-PROOF CHEQUE PRODUCTION
WIDE RANGE OF RECEIPT AND STATEMENT LAYOUTS
AUTOMATED REGULAR PAYMENTS FROM CREDIT UNION AND/OR BUDGET ACCOUNTS
with ease. The Credit Union can also produce their own cheques or takedebit card payments to facilitate the Member. Tellers can also acquire cheque details automatically from lodged cheques.
LOCUS supports the Wellington CU Cash stand-alone ATM facility and is currently linked to two main local banks, providing access to national ATM networks.
In today’s busy world, and with the spread of the Internet, more and more members are either challenged by time constraints or have become accustomed to not having to physically visit their �nancial institution, but still welcome the bene�ts and ethos of their Credit Union for personal lending and service.
With LOCUS, the Credit Union can offer their members the convenience of handling direct debits and pay bills electronically through the National Payments Systems, just the same as Banks. Members can specify how monies are to be disbursed across multiple accounts, including family members, pay one-off bills, and have regular bills paid automatically for them.Many of these facilities are web-based,giving the bene�t of �exibility to the members, without increased back-end of�ce costs.
The concept of shared servicesis a simple one: savings are made by moving common andrepeatable activities to a common place, creating bene�tsof scale and shared supportservices to the LOCUScommunity. As the authors ofLOCUS, Wellington not onlyunderstand intimately what functionality is required in CreditUnions and how LOCUS can bedeployed, we also understandthe supporting IT architecture.Our role is to remove the problems inherent in managingan increasingly complex ITinfrastructure and our release-based approach to software ensures that all Credit Unionscan implement LOCUS to suitspeci�c local conditions, yetbene�t from shared serviceswhich are common to all.
All LOCUS users have the possibilityof connecting to shared services, sosecurity and deployment issues need only be dealt with in one place,saving on license and installation costs. This infrastructure is alsoutilized to provide Disaster RecoveryServices, where mission-critical datais replicated continuously off-site toour secure Data Centre in Dublin.Gateways for both payment systemsand credit referencing provide a fullyautomated and seamless integrationwith the back-end system and aremonitored by our shared services support staff. This leads to a betterCredit Union experience, asobligations to ensure processing can take place automatically, evenwhen the Credit Union is closed.
KEY FEATURESSUPPORT SERVICES FOR CORE MISSION-CRITICAL SYSTEMS
DISASTER RECOVERY SERVICES
PAYMENTS SYSTEM GATEWAYS
CREDIT REFERENCE AGENCY GATEWAYS
CARD PRODUCTION AND PIN MAILER SERVICES
NETWORK MANAGEMENT AND SECURITY TO ISO 27001 STANDARDS
SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT AND EVOLUTION
SHARED BRANCH NETWORK CAPABILITY
OVERSIGHT OF COMPLETE IT INFRASTRUCTURE
SHARED SERVICES -SUSTAINABLE BUSINESSBENEFITSUNDERPINING EACHCREDIT UNIONS ACTIVITIESIS A SUPPORTING INFRA-STRUCTURE OFFERINGCOMMON FUNCTIONALITYAND ECONOMIES OF SCALEACROSS OUR CUSTOMERBASE.
Installing systems to ISO27001 security standards, with offsite replication, automatic failover servers, encrypted back ups, proactive monitoring of your onsite systems and disaster recovery equipment for immediate deployment in emergency premises, Wellington have a suite of services to ensure business continuity for your Credit Union.
WITH SOME CREDIT UNIONS PROCESSING 800,000 TRANSACTIONS ANNUALLY AND MOVING OVER €500 MILLION,SYSTEM UPTIME IS CRITICAL.
LOCUS is a rich repository of data, all stored within one Oracle database. This enables the use of powerful tools to help you both control and convert data into a wealth of useable information. With pre-built libraries of standard reports, the Credit Union can satisfy normal reporting requirements and can ensure that these reports are automatically run as and when they should be. As well as the operational reports, LOCUS includes an Exception Reporting Framework, constantly monitoring and reporting Credit Union de�ned values and thresholds for areas such as such as dormancy re-activation, abnormal member account access, loan amendment activity, anti-money laundering velocity checking, anti-terrorism checking, transaction reversals, to name but some; our policy of continuous development and our close partnership with our community of customers ensures that this constantly evolves to handle changing operational and compliance risks.
GOVERNANCE AND BUSINESS INTELLIGENCEVISIBILITY ON ALL ASPECTS OF YOUR BUSINESS FOR BETTER DECISION MAKING AND REDUCED RISK.
KEY FEATURESDATA MINING AGAINST ONE COHERENT DATABASE OF INFORMATION
POWERFUL BUSINESS ANALYSIS TOOLS
HIGH LEVEL OF AUDITABILITY AND TRACEABILITY
HIGH LEVEL OF ACCESS CONTROL
LIBRARY OF STANDARD OPERATIONAL REPORTS
LIBRARY OF PRE-LOADED KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
LIBRARY OF PRE-LOADED EXCEPTION REPORTING
REPORT GENERATOR
For those Credit Unions who want to go beyond the comprehensive standard reporting, LOCUS offers highly powerful analytical tools to harvest data already collected from every area of the business and highlight the Key Performance Indicators (KPI). This condenses lots of information into graphical format to make it easier to assimilate the numbers behind the business so that fully informed decisions may be made. The use of key PEARLS ratios helps you assess your performance in line with that of your peers and against an Industry benchmark, to give you a complete picture of your business.
Wellington IT Solutions Head Of�ce91 Wellington ParkBelfast
TF : +44 (0) 28 9066 0181E : [email protected]
: +44 (0) 28 9068 1531
Wellington IT Solutions Dublin Of�ce1st Floor47 Clontarf RoadClontarf, Dublin
BT9 6DP