UKFCU's Change Agenda: New Mortgage Dept, Zest AI, First Merger

UKFCU's Change Agenda: New Mortgage Dept, Zest AI, First Merger

From Main Street AI by Multimodal

May 28, 2026 · 42 min

About this episode

Ankur Patel interviews Lisa Highley about UKFCU's new mortgage department and the integration of AI technologies in lending.

Ankur Patel interviews Lisa Highley, Chief Lending Officer at University of Kentucky Federal Credit Union (UKFCU). They chat about the credit union's new mortgage department, a rebuilt commercial lending operation, Zest AI live in consumer lending, GLIA live in the call center, and the institution's first merger.Guest: Lisa Highley, Chief Lending Officer, University of Kentucky FCUHost: Ankur Patel, CEO & Founder, Multimodal0:00 Introduction: Meet Lisa Highley1:03 UKFCU at $1.75B and the full lending portfolio2:30 Why the change agenda4:01 Diversifying out of indirect auto and home equity dependence5:46 Branch referrals driving the new mortgage department7:05 Build vs. buy9:04 What Empower automates in mortgage origination13:02 Document review pain still left for AI to solve17:13 How many hours a mortgage file still takes today18:27 Staying competitive in indirect auto22:00 Where software actually helps24:52 Why same-day funding matters to dealers25:57 Zest AI rollout, year-one goals, six-month review29:04 How UKFCU decides what Zest can auto-approve32:11 GLIA on day two33:30 Reducing after-hours call support by 70%34:30 Voluntary staff repurposing, not layoffs35:43 The case…

People in this episode

Host: Ankur Patel

Guest: Lisa Highley

Topics covered

  • mortgage department
  • AI in lending
  • credit union merger
  • commercial lending
  • customer service automation

Keywords

  • mortgage
  • Zest AI
  • UKFCU
  • lending
  • merger
  • GLIA
  • customer service

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Kentucky Federal Credit Union, Zest AI, GLIA

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