Performance that pays: Leveraging super-prime lending for lasting growth
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Personal loans aren't just popular with consumers today - they're one of the strongest-performing assets on credit union balance sheets. For credit unions looking to combat declining membership year-over-year, personal loans offer a strong combination of high consumer demand with high yields. Balances hit a record $253 billion in early 2025 nationwide, with the average loan size reaching $11,631.
Not all personal loan partnerships are created equal. Credit unions like Vantage West, Texans, and Abound are proving that with the right technology partner, personal loans can be a strong-yielding asset on the balance sheet with predictable credit performance and an engine for prime membership growth.
With the Upstart Referral Network, credit unions nationwide are acquiring a steady stream of creditworthy borrowers, supported by AI-powered credit decisioning and over a decade of seasoned performance data. For those seeking to add the highest-quality borrowers, the T-Prime program has delivered super-prime borrowers with an average FICO of 757 and an average annual income of $152,000: a profile primed for relationship deepening through additional products like deposit accounts.
Strong returns backed by a decade of proven performance
With yields of 8.5 percent + after losses and fees and annualized returns 15-57 percent higher than the industry average for comparable loans, Upstart has spent more than a decade proving that personal loans can be one of the most profitable products on a credit union's balance sheet without sacrificing credit performance. These aren't short-term results; it's a performance record built on billions in loan history, proven, accurate credit decisioning, and deep alignment with credit union partners' goals.
For Abound Credit Union, that history was the deciding factor in re-entering the personal loan market. "Upstart had an established, seasoned portfolio, plenty of historical data, and a model that helped us feel confident we could originate additional loans and maintain the margins we were looking for," said Chuck Eads, Chief Lending Officer. Since launch, Abound's Upstart personal lending program has achieved strong returns with loss rates below original model projections.
Texans Credit Union approached the partnership as a way to diversify away from collateralized loans and strengthen net interest margin. "Upstart has been a highly profitable product for us. The margins have beat many of our other products, and losses have been much less than projected," said Mike McWethy, Executive Vice President.
At Vantage West Credit Union, strong performance isn't just a metric: it's what allows them to scale confidently. Scott Odom, Chief Financial Officer, put it plainly: "So far in our partnership with Upstart over the past three years, the loans have performed according to plan. In the more recent vintages, we've actually seen better performance than we've planned."
High-quality borrowers prime for relationship growth
While strong returns keep the balance sheet healthy, the T-Prime program takes it a step further by delivering super-prime borrowers: members with the creditworthiness and financial profile to grow deeper relationships over time. With an average FICO score of 757, $152K annual income, 81 percent homeownership, and 58 percent with post-secondary education, these members are not only low-risk but also primed for cross-sell opportunities.
"Upstart has helped us to serve more affluent borrowers through the T-Prime program," said Sandra Sagehorn-Elliott, Vantage West's President and CEO. "That's effective for us because it balances our risk. The T-Prime program has helped us continue to serve the lower-end borrowers because we have that balance."
At Abound, Chuck Eads saw T-Prime as a way to capture high-quality borrowers they were previously missing. "We were maintaining great margins, really at or above our target. But we were missing out on some super prime opportunities based on borrower expectations around rate. Upstart created the T-Prime Program, and simply put, we had an opportunity to originate more loans at similar margins."
For Kaua'i Federal Credit Union, adding T-Prime in 2024 was about maintaining the right mix of risk tiers. "Introducing T-Prime was a natural move for our balance sheet strategy," said Sajid Siddiqi, Chief Financial Officer. "It allowed us to maintain the right mix of risk tiers as we scaled, something we couldn't have done with just premium lending." Turning first loans into lasting relationships
Bringing in the right members is only the first step. The real opportunity lies in converting those relationships into long-term engagement, a challenge the industry has struggled to solve. A 2025 Pinwheel study found that 70 percent of new accounts go inactive within 90 days without an anchor action, and 44 percent go inactive within a year, and 68 percent of consumers avoid switching deposits due to complexity. With an average acquisition cost of $350 per new banking customer, failing to deepen relationships can be costly.
That's why credit unions like Vantage West are embedding cross-sell directly into the lending journey with Upstart. "We're super excited that we're going to be adding new products into the loan journey," said Michelle Goeppner, SVP of Consumer Lending and Deposits. "When someone is taking out a loan through Upstart, we're going to offer them a checking account with Vantage West and hopefully ask that they make that loan payment with that checking account."
Upstart's Member Cross-Sell solution builds on this approach with borrower-level data, personalized offers, and turnkey marketing assets to make cross-sell scalable.
Stephani Foss, Executive Vice President, Chief Operations and Consumer Lending Officer at Alliant Credit Union, summed up the potential: "The data-driven approach combined with marketing best practices…will help us achieve measurable growth while boosting overall member satisfaction."
With double-digit net returns, low loss rates below projections, and the ability to attract high-value members, credit unions partnering with Upstart are transforming personal lending into one of their most profitable and strategic products. By combining proven performance with access to super-prime borrowers and the tools to deepen relationships, Upstart is helping credit unions unlock sustainable, long-term growth.
Sponsored by Visionary
Citations
- https://ncua.gov/analysis/credit-union-corporate-call-report-data/ncua-quarterly-us-map-review/third-quarter-2024
- https://www.fool.com/money/research/personal-loan-statistics/
- Based on 720+ Upstart CU borrower data from Sep 2024 - Dec 2024
- From 2021 through 2023, Upstart delivered 15-59% higher net annualized returns compared to the unsecured consumer loans benchmark from DV01 for loans with less than 18% interest and credit scores greater than 720. The benchmark includes lenders like Upgrade, Sofi, Lending Club, Marlette, Prosper and Avant. We removed the Upstart loans from the benchmark to make the comparison between Upstart and other platforms more clear.
- https://consumerbankers.com/webinar-details/?id=4960
