Technology Reshapes Digital Lending Space

Garnett Volk, Vice President, Conexus Credit Union

Garnett Volk presently works as the Vice President of Credit Risk at Conexus Credit Union (Conexus), a credit union located in Saskatchewan, Canada that serves over 133,000 members and manages over $11 billion. What drew Garnett to accept the role at Conexus was his entrepreneurial spirit and the ability to influence and make decisions. Furthermore, given the breadth of experience he has gained over the last number of years working at other financial institutions, he has the confidence to lean in and truly support the growth of Conexus. Prior to working with Conexus, Garnett worked at FCC for 14 years, most recently in the positions ofVice President, Enterprise Risk Management and Vice President, Operational Risk Management

What are some of the major credit risk trends in the digital banking sector?

The model-driven or scorecard lending processes in the lending industry has been in use for a long time. However, with the support of artificial intelligence (AI) what we now observe is that models are getting more intuitive.

“Having a great employee experience and high employee engagement go hand in hand”

By integrating real-time banking data for our loan decisioning and workflow at Conexus, we were able to successfully advance traditional lending procedures through our partnership with a FinTech company. This has had a significant impact because the workflow process is made simpler and faster from the time a member makes a request until cash is actually received. Additionally, we are able to pivot and meet specific target market demands in the small business and consumer area much more swiftly than we could do so on our own.

What are some of the projects that you’ve been practicing at your organization recently?

For today’s working environment, it is important to leverage new ways of workflow as well as new technologies when it comes to providing a great employee experience. Great employee experience and high employee engagement go hand in hand. However, still, we see one of the things that I would say is overlooked is the significance of the employee experience in the modern business world. At Conexus, we are committed to providing employees with a first-class working environment supported by modern applications which in turn helps in benefiting our customers.

What would be your piece of advice for budding professionals in this field?

There are four factors that, in my opinion, are crucial for any professional working in the financial industry. The first is to just get started using an agile approach. Although agile was frequently viewed negatively in the financial services sector, there are effective ways to use agile in projects. Partnering comes next. As the industry is developing quickly, partnering with like-minded third parties is preferable to developing your own infrastructure in order to give members the best experience possible. The third step would be to assist your employees in adjusting to the speed of change. It is more crucial than ever to provide your employees with a clear roadmap of where the company is headed. This will facilitate faster organizational growth and adoption. The final step is to involve members along the way and invite them on your journey. This will help to produce a better final product.

Financial

Agile

Risk Management

Employee Engagement

Artificial Intelligence

Enterprise Risk Management