Desert Financial Credit Union Partners with Informed.IQ and MeridianLink to Transform Indirect Auto Lending, Boosting Funder Efficiency by 66%

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MeridianLink, Desert Financial Credit Union, and Informed.IQ recently highlighted the impact of their integrated lending technology partnership, demonstrating how AI-powered automation and modern lending infrastructure are helping financial institutions scale indirect auto operations while improving dealer experience and operational efficiency.

Through the integration of MeridianLink’s lending platform and Informed.IQ’s AI-driven document automation capabilities, Desert Financial transformed a manual funding workflow into a streamlined automated environment focused on speed, consistency, and scalability.

Prior to implementation, Desert Financial’s funding team faced increasing operational pressure driven by growing dealer volume, manual document review processes, and complex stipulation handling. The organization identified dealer responsiveness and funding speed as strategic priorities to strengthen dealer relationships and improve competitiveness within the indirect lending market.

By leveraging the combined MeridianLink and Informed.IQ ecosystem, Desert Financial automated document intake, stipulation identification, and workflow routing, allowing funders to focus primarily on complex exceptions and quality assurance.

The integrated solution delivered measurable operational results:

• Accelerated Funder Throughput: Daily individual funding capacity surged by 66%, jumping from an average of 15 closed deals per day to 25 closed deals per day.
• Elimination of Team Overtime: Prior to automation, the credit union routinely logged overtime hours to prevent backlogs; with Informed.IQ’s streamlined workflows, Desert Financial has successfully scaled back overtime entirely.
• Rapid Employee Onboarding: Training new personnel in the complex auto-lending space previously required a full two weeks. Under the automated environment powered by Informed.IQ, onboarding takes just 3 days before a new hire is confidently processing live deal jackets.
• Immediate Deploy Success: In the first two months, individual funders successfully doubled the total number of processed loan fundings in a single day.

“Automation allowed us to simplify operations while improving consistency and speed for our dealers,” shared the Desert Financial team. “The integration between systems created a much more scalable operational model for our funding teams.”

Looking ahead, MeridianLink, Desert Financial, and Informed.IQ plan to continue expanding workflow automation, dealer experience enhancements, and integrated operational capabilities across the lending lifecycle.

About MeridianLink

MeridianLink’s leading digital lending platform and suite of solutions help retail banks, credit unions, IMBs, and consumer reporting agencies grow, scale, and serve. Powered by smarter automation, built-in compliance, trusted AI and data, and the industry’s most robust partner network, we connect consumers to a modern technology ecosystem. Our solutions across account opening, loan origination and optimization, digital mortgages, collections, and reporting accelerate processes, deliver personalized experiences, and foster lasting relationships. Together, we’re making lending human.

About Desert Financial Credit Union

For more than 87 years, Desert Financial has been Arizona’s most trusted local credit union with more than 500,000 members and nearly $9 billion in assets. With 50+ locations across Arizona and top-rated digital banking, it’s easy for members to click, call or come in. In 2026, members received $16 million back via the Member Giveback Bonus. Desert Financial is the official retail banking partner of Arizona State University® and the official banking partner of the Arizona Cardinals, NAU Athletics and the NAU Alumni Association. Federally insured by NCUA. Learn more at DesertFinancial.com.

About Informed.IQ

Informed.IQ uses AI and ML to instantly verify income, assets, residence, insurance, auto stipulations, credit stipulations, and more, enabling real-time, reliable credit decisions without bias. Informed’s models are trained to process hundreds of document types, automating stipulation and funding clearance for top auto lenders, banks, and credit unions across the United States. For more information, visit informediq.com.