As CEO, Andy will lead Baker Hill by leveraging his extensive background as an innovator in the lending technology industry. Andy and Baker Hill aim to drive innovation across the company’s product suite and enable financial institutions to optimize and modernize their lending operations. Andy’s entrepreneurial spirit and product-focused approach position him to drive innovation within the company’s product offerings. Andy’s leadership will solidify Baker Hill’s position as a market leader, ensuring clients benefit from forward-thinking lending solutions that enable them to grow and serve their local communities.

Andy is an experienced fintech executive and entrepreneur who brings over two decades of experience in the financial services industry to Baker Hill. He has a strong track record of developing innovative, customer-centric software solutions in digital lending. Following Fiserv’s acquisition of iLendx, a company he founded while pioneering cloud-native lending origination products, he oversaw Fiserv’s lending and deposit software products and services division. Before his software career, Andy was a banker and managed a $14 billion lending portfolio as a product executive with USAA, where he also developed and is a named inventor on USAA’s lending technology patents. Andy is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force.

“I am truly honored to be appointed Baker Hill’s Chief Executive Officer and look forward to building upon the strong foundation Baker Hill has built over its 40-year history,” said Ivankovich. “Baker Hill is consistently recognized as a leading fintech company with world-class products. The team has cultivated a reputation for driving innovation in lending for banks and credit unions to better serve their communities. I am proud to join this team of experts and look forward to leading Baker Hill through its next stage of growth and ushering in a new era of innovation for our clients.”

Brian Longe, Chairman of the Board for Baker Hill and former CEO of Wolters Kluwer Financial and Compliance Services, said, “Andy has demonstrated forward-thinking leadership throughout his career, and he is well-acquainted with Baker Hill’s mission. His product and client focused approach, entrepreneurial background, and forward-thinking innovation make him an excellent choice to lead Baker Hill.”

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The Federal Trade Commission estimates that consumer fraud losses in 2023 exceeded $10 billion while credit unions and community banks reported a 69% surge in fraud cases across consumer accounts.

“Lenders need to outsmart fraud, including an increasing volume of AI-driven fraud in the industry, with AI,” said Adam Kleinman, Head of Strategy and Client Success at Zest AI. “Our team designed Zest Protect to create an efficient tool that can more accurately detect all types of fraud now and in the future, including AI-created fraud, with the ultimate goal of boosting lending confidence for our bank and credit union customers.”

Zest Protect leverages Zest AI’s proven, industry-leading machine learning technology to instantly detect first party and third party fraud, as well as flag income inconsistencies within the automated loan decisioning process. This integrated solution empowers lenders to take control of their fraud risk, allowing them to adjust specific detection thresholds based on their risk tolerances and automation objectives. With access to fraud prevention data and analytics, Zest AI can flag applications swiftly, and protect against emerging threats.

“Capturing application fraud, especially more sophisticated AI-powered fraud, without compromising the member experience is a top priority for us,” said Gather Federal Credit Union’s EVP, Justin Ganaden. “The insights, accuracy and end to end automation we have experienced with Zest AI technology has transformed our lending business. We’re excited to bring that same level of innovation and intellectual rigor to fraud prevention with Zest Protect.”

“The banking industry is bracing for an onslaught of fraud as AI tools become more ubiquitous, making it easier to generate deepfakes, clone voices and otherwise defraud people and businesses,” said Zest AI CEO Mike de Vere. “Now with a combination of AI-automated underwriting technology and fraud detection, we can enable lenders to safely and efficiently fund more loans.”

Zest Protect has been piloted with select Zest AI credit union customers. For more information about the availability of Zest Protect, please contact us via our contact form on Zest AI.

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“The technology combination of big data and artificial intelligence (AI) adopted by Lexin to assess customers’ creditworthiness has enabled the company to develop a risk management system that can automatically handle 98% of all loan applications while maintaining a charge-off rate of under 2%,” The Asian Banker commented.
Behind the technological achievement is Lexin’s heavy investment into research and development (R&D). Lexin’s R&D expenses increased by 37.8% year-on-year to RMB93.8 million, representing approximately 25% of Lexin’s total operating expenses in the first quarter of 2019. Every one out of three employees at Lexin works for the company’s R&D and risk management teams.

The investments into technology enables Lexin to tap into China’s burgeoning fintech sector by creating a more efficient lending process. It also allows Lexin to assess the creditworthiness of tens of millions of educated young adults who have been underserved by traditional financial institutions because of a lack of credit history.

AI and big data play a pivotal role in enhancing financial efficiency
Lexin incorporates advanced technologies, including AI, big data, and cloud computing, into every step of the transaction process. This helps the company to streamline the traditional loan applications, making it possible for Lexin customers to complete a credit application on the company’s APP within just a few minutes without having to submit a significant amounts of paperwork.

The company leverages its proprietary risk management system Hawkeye, which can process more than 1,000 decision rules and over 7,500 data variables, to generate a credit assessment of each customer within seconds. This has reduced the headcount of Lexin’s loan review team by 40% while the number of loan applications on its platform has surged 70 times in the past few years.

Lexin then matches the approved loan requests with more than 100 institutional funding partners through the company’s Wormhole system in real time, minimizing manual approvals by its funding partners, and instantaneously allocates funding needs to various funding sources with different risk-and-return parameters.

The customers approved for credit lines on Lexin platform can receive funds within a few minutes following their applications – a process which can otherwise take weeks in the traditional financial system.

Lexin has continuously improved its operating efficiency through technology. Its IT cost for per loan application has been reduced to 10% of that of traditional financial institutions. The company’s operating expenditure as a percentage of loan balance has steadily declined from 17.3% in 2015 to 4.5% in the first quarter of 2019.

An anti-fraud system that prevents over RMB30 million worth of monthly losses
As part of the risk management process, Lexin adopts an anti-fraud model to both identify individual fraud and to spot collusion and patterns among multiple individuals, which has become increasingly the focus of anti-fraud efforts in the region.

AI-backed anti-fraud technologies include Complex Networks, which evaluates the possibility of fraud by analyzing the connections between customers based on a wide range of metrics including shared devices, Wi-Fi networks, and contact lists, and User Behavior Risk Analysis, which quantifies the levels of risks based on customers’ behaviors on Lexin’s platform including the initial sign up and changes in devices.

With these technologies in place, organized fraud involving more than 50 individuals have all but been eliminated on Lexin’s platform since the beginning of this year. Lexin has prevented over 2,000 cases of fraud last year, representing savings of an average of over RMB30 million worth of losses per month for the company’s customers. This is reflected in Lexin’s stable credit quality, with its 90 day+ delinquency ratio remaining low at 1.42% as of March 31, 2019.

The Asian Banker awards are generally viewed by executives as one of the most rigorous, prestigious and transparent financial awards in Asia. Lexin was one of over 150 applications that The Asian Banker’s research team spent over 3 months reviewing and investigating before making the final decisions. Previous winners of the award include world-renowned financial institutions such as Standard Chartered Bank, Citi Group and ICBC.

About LexinFintech Holdings Ltd.
LexinFintech Holdings Ltd. is a leading online consumer finance platform for educated young adults in China. As one of China’s leading financial technology companies, Lexin integrates its e-commerce-driven installment finance platform, Fenqile, with advanced risk management technologies, the Company’s Dingsheng asset distribution technology platform, and the Company’s Juzi Licai online investment platform for individual investors, to create a comprehensive consumer finance ecosystem. The Company utilizes technologies including big data, cloud computing and artificial intelligence to enable the near-instantaneous matching of user funding requests with offers from the Company’s more than 100 funding partners, which include commercial banks, consumer finance companies, and other licensed financial institutions.

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“We are excited for the collaboration and development of future credit union leaders through CU Direct’s support of the i3 program,” said Mark Meyer, Filene CEO. “With more than 200 innovative concepts and solutions from 260 program participants under its belt, Filene i3 has already helped save consumers millions of dollars, brought new efficiencies to credit unions and even changed a few laws.”

Filene i3 is an innovation and leadership development program populated with the best and brightest minds from credit unions across the country. The program is built to instill and encourage an entrepreneurial mindset in future credit union leaders. i3 participants work with Filene over a two-year period to brainstorm, test and launch products and solutions designed to address key challenges credit unions are facing. The program delivers a strong network of talent with over 30% of i3 graduates advancing to CEO or C-Suite level after participation.

“CU Direct is on the leading edge of innovative technology for credit unions, and we know this work is a collaborative sport, so it makes sense for us to partner with Filene to strengthen the opportunities available to growing, innovation-minded credit unions,” said Tony Boutelle, CU Direct president & CEO. “This is the type of innovative brainpower credit unions need to succeed in the financial services space now and in the future, and CU Direct is excited to support this important initiative.”

The Filene / CU Direct partnership is built on a shared understanding of consumers’ financial needs, insight into the ever-changing financial landscape and a deep passion for developing innovative solutions that will help credit unions serve more members. Because of these synergies, Filene is opening a talent outpost within CU Direct’s Irvine Campus, adjacent to their Innovation Lab. This physical link will keep Filene connected to CU Direct’s innovation work and enable Filene to be closer to member credit unions on the West Coast. More details to come on this talent outpost as Filene works to staff the location with new employees over the next 12 months.

Filene’s i3 program will begin recruiting participants for the 2019 class in June. Visit the Filene i3 web page to learn more about the application process and fill out the interest form to be notified first when applications open. To learn more about Filene membership, visit filene.org.

About Filene: Filene Research Institute is an independent, consumer finance think tank dedicated to scientific and thoughtful analysis about issues affecting consumer financial wellness, the future of credit unions, and cooperative finance. Founded 30 years ago as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Filene moves credit unions forward with research and incubation support. For more information, visit filene.org and @fileneresearch.

About CU Direct: For more than twenty years, CU Direct has been a lending technology leader, helping credit unions fund $213 billion in loans. An enterprise lending solutions and technology company, CU Direct serves more than 1,100 credit unions, 14,800 auto dealers, retailers and medical providers nationwide. CU Direct brings innovation and expertise to indirect lending, consumer and mortgage loan origination, point-of-sale, digital retail, analytics marketing and CRM, auto shopping and business process outsourcing. The company focuses on four key areas: providing growth opportunities, creating operational efficiencies, delivering exceptional experiences and protecting credit union members. Connect with CU Direct on Twitter and LinkedIn.

FILENE CONTACT: Holly Fearing | hollyf@filene.org | 608.661.3758

CU DIRECT CONTACT: Bill Meyer | bill.meyer@cudirect.com | 909.753.9732

SOURCE CU Direct

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