Using AI to Spot More Good Borrowers with Coastal Credit Union

By Zest AI
February 2022

Coastal Credit Union is one of the largest and fastest-growing financial institutions in North Carolina, committed to providing financial opportunities to the hardworking families in its area. Coastal is on a five-year strategic plan to reinvent the future of its lending with speed, efficiency and more approvals. It was looking to acquire more good borrowers further down the credit spectrum without adding risk or impacting member experience. So Coastal turned to Zest, a leader in AI underwriting software, for a partnership. Read the case study to find out how Zest software checked all the boxes: - Built an auto lending model with 10x more credit variables - Superior risk ranking, especially for lower-credit applicants - Increased auto-decisioning dramatically - Integrated seamlessly with MeridianLink Consumer "Financial inclusion is a core principle for Coastal, which is why we felt it was important to partner with Zest AI, whose industry leading fair lending tools will help us create credit opportunities for more members." -David Jacobs, VP Credit Risk Management, Coastal Credit Union

About Zest AI

Zest AI is a mission-driven software company that helps credit unions and banks answer their most important question: Who do I lend to? Zest’s Model Management System lets lenders break the limitations of traditional credit scores to identify good borrowers overlooked by legacy techniques.

Zest has been on a mission to make fair and transparent credit available to all since 2009 and are pioneers in the safe use of AI in credit underwriting.