San Francisco, CA and Phoenix, AZ — 2026 — Informed.IQ, a leading provider of AI-driven document intelligence and automation for financial institutions, has partnered with Phoenix, Arizona-based Desert Financial Credit Union to eliminate manual funding friction, reduce team overtime, and cut employee onboarding times through direct integration into the credit union’s indirect lending stack.
Before Informed.IQ, Desert Financial relied on a lean, five-person funding team to manage high volumes of dealer submissions. As loan application volumes escalated, manual document downloading, re-ordering, and multi-scenario data checks created severe backlog risks. Because dealership trust erodes rapidly when funding is delayed, Desert Financial established a critical strategic initiative: to secure regional dealer loyalty by becoming the fastest institution to fund a deal, rather than competing solely on price.
“We got really backed up — and dealers felt it,” noted Kevin Chavez and Joy Angel, Desert Financial lending systems architect team during MeridianLink Live.
To solve this operational bottleneck, Desert Financial integrated Informed.IQ across its lending stack to completely eliminate manual document downloading and re-ordering by instantly and automatically identifying missing items or processing exceptions. By utilizing AI to automate and clear “clean deals,” the credit union’s funding team was able to shift its focus to resolving complex files.
The deep integration of Informed.IQ delivered immediate, measurable results across Desert Financial’s team capacity, training speed, and daily performance:
- 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 Success: In the first two-months, individual funders successfully doubled the total number of processed loan fundings in a single day.
“Custom workflows and integrated automation from Informed.IQ have helped us strengthen dealer relationships and dramatically improve lending efficiency—all without adding staff,” said Kevin Chavez and Joy Angel, Desert Financial lending systems architect team.
Moving forward, Desert Financial treats this automated decisioning environment as an evolving ecosystem, repurposing operational capacity into dedicated quality-control roles tasked with reviewing rule exceptions and optimizing auto-decisioning rules over time.
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.
