By Omar Jordan
Founder & CEO
Coviance
Across the credit union community, I’m seeing renewed energy around HELOCs and closed-end home equity loans. Rising rates have slowed first mortgages, but they’ve also created an opportunity for members to tap into the equity they’ve built over the past several years. For many credit unions, home equity feels like the most logical place to focus.
But here’s something I’ve noticed in conversations with lending leaders: we’re often trying to run modern home equity programs on infrastructure built for first mortgages.
On the surface, that makes sense. The mortgage LOS is already in place. The team knows how to use it. There’s history and investment there. Why reinvent the wheel?
The challenge is that home equity isn’t just a “smaller mortgage.” Operationally, it behaves very differently.
Home equity borrowers aren’t buying a home. They’re accessing value they already have. They’ve usually shopped around. They’re often ready to move quickly. And increasingly, they expect a digital, transparent experience that doesn’t drag on for 45 days.
When we run those loans through mortgage-centric systems, friction shows up in subtle ways.
I hear it in things like:
- “Our cycle times are creeping past 30 days.”
- “We have strong application volume, but pull-through isn’t where we want it.”
- “We’re using a lot of manual tracking to keep files moving.”
- “It feels harder than it should be.”
None of those issues necessarily point to bad teams. In fact, most credit union lending teams I work with are incredibly capable. More often, they point to systems that weren’t designed for the speed and variability of home equity.
Mortgage platforms tend to assume a linear, milestone-driven process. Home equity often requires parallel workstreams. Mortgage applications are detailed and exhaustive by design. Home equity borrowers typically don’t want to answer dozens of questions that aren’t relevant to their situation. Service ordering in a mortgage workflow can be rigid, while home equity frequently calls for more dynamic decisioning based on LTV or loan size.
Individually, these don’t seem like major obstacles. But collectively, they slow things down.
I sometimes refer to this as the “mortgage mindset,” recognizing that many of our processes were built around purchase-driven lending cycles. When that mindset carries over into home equity, we risk overcomplicating something that members expect to be straightforward.
From a leadership perspective, this isn’t just about technology. It’s about alignment.
If home equity is going to be a strategic growth area for credit unions over the next several years (and I believe it will be), then we have to ask a few honest questions:
- Are our cycle times aligned with member expectations?
- Can we clearly see where loans stall in the pipeline?
- Are we making it easy for members to complete applications on their phones?
- Can we adjust workflows quickly when policy or product changes?
If the answer to those questions is “not easily,” the issue may not be staffing or effort. It may be infrastructure.
One of the strengths of the CUSO model is that we don’t have to solve these challenges alone. Collaboration and shared services have always been part of how credit unions compete effectively without losing their cooperative identity. That same spirit applies here. Modernizing home equity operations doesn’t necessarily mean ripping out core systems. It means layering in tools, refining workflows, or partnering differently to reduce friction.
What I’ve learned is this: small operational gaps compound quickly in home equity. A few extra days waiting on a service order. A manual handoff between departments. An application that’s harder to complete on mobile than it should be. Each seems minor. Together, they shape the member experience and determine whether growth is sustainable.
Credit unions are well-positioned in this market. Members trust them. They value the relationship. That’s a significant advantage over purely digital lenders.
But trust alone isn’t enough. Execution matters.
If we want home equity to be more than a short-term rate-cycle play, we have to ensure our operational model supports scale, speed and consistency. That requires stepping back and asking whether we’re designing processes around how members behave today — or around how mortgages have historically worked.
My perspective is simple: home equity deserves its own strategy. Not just in pricing and marketing, but in workflow, reporting and member engagement.
The good news? Most credit unions don’t need to start from scratch. They need clarity on where friction exists and a willingness to rethink long-standing assumptions.
That conversation is already happening across the CUSO community. And I think that’s a healthy sign for where home equity lending is headed next.
To learn more or connect with Coviance, please visit their website at https://www.coviance.com/.
About the Author:
Omar Jordan
Founder & CEO
Coviance
Omar Jordan is the Founder & CEO of Coviance, a Credit Union Service Organization (CUSO) and lending experience platform purpose-built for home equity. Omar is passionate about helping credit unions compete effectively while staying true to their member-first mission.