For credit union lending leaders
Your lending policy has a hundred rules. How many get checked on every loan?
Sidecar checks every application against your whole lending policy, beside the LOS you already run. Every rule checked, every time, with its work shown. Your underwriters still decide, and they decide faster.
A conversation with the founder. No deck.
Used auto · $28,750 · 60 months
102 of 102 rules checked
3 need attention
- Needs attention: Maximum LTV, used vehiclesLimit 90% 104.6%
- Needs attention: Maximum term, used vehiclesLimit 54 months 60 mo
- Needs attention: Proof of incomeTwo paystubs or a YTD return Not in file
- Passes: Debt-to-incomeLimit 40% 32.5%
+ 98 more passed
Counter within policy
$24,750 financed · 54 months
Brings LTV to 90%. Subject to proof of income.
The gap
Between the policy and the decision
Your board approves the policy. The files that need a person go to an underwriter with a PDF and a good memory.
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On a busy Saturday
The rules that get checked are the ones someone remembers.
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When the policy changes
It arrives as an email and a new PDF. For a while, some files get the old rule.
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On a decline
It gets written up at the first failing rule. The other reasons stay in someone’s head.
None of this is a people problem. It is a long policy, applied by hand, one file at a time.
What changes
Every rule checked, every time, with its work shown
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Decisions come back sooner
No more paging through the policy. Dealers and members hear back while the deal is still warm.
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Each underwriter handles more
The same team takes on more volume, without a matching hire.
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Your newest underwriter works from the whole policy
Not from memory, and not from whoever happens to be on shift.
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Every decision points back to its rule
For the examiner, the board, and the adverse-action notice.
What stays yours
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Your LOS
Sidecar works beside it, read-only. Nothing to replace.
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Your policy
Your team owns every rule and every change.
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Your underwriters’ judgment
They still make every decision.
Questions lending leaders ask
- What is Sidecar?
- Sidecar is underwriting automation for credit unions: a rules engine that checks every loan application against your whole lending policy and shows which rules pass, which need attention, and why. It works beside the loan origination system you already run. Your underwriters still make the decision.
- Is Sidecar AI lending software?
- No. Sidecar is a rules engine, not a credit model. Your lending policy becomes rules written in plain English, and every application is checked against them, with the work shown for each rule. There is no scoring model to interpret: every result points back to the rule in your policy that produced it.
- Does Sidecar replace our LOS or its decision engine?
- No. Sidecar works beside your LOS, read-only, and changes nothing about how applications arrive, are decisioned, or are booked. It is for the files your LOS sends to a person: the ones that need an underwriter. Nothing to replace, nothing to migrate.
- What does “with its work shown” mean?
- Every result on a file names the rule it came from and the value it checked. A decline, a counter, or an exception can be traced back to your policy: by the underwriter writing it up, in the adverse-action notice, and for the examiner.
- Who owns the rules?
- Your team does. The rules are your lending policy, in plain English, and your team owns every rule and every change. When the board approves a change, every file after it is checked against the new rule.
From the founder
How does your policy get from the board to the file?
I’m asking credit union lending leaders that question. Give me fifteen minutes: tell me how it works at your credit union, and I’ll show you what we’ve built.
Sidd SenguptaFounder