Orion First

"It's become a requirement for small business lenders to embrace analytics in order to remain competitive," says David Trost, VP of Product & Analytics of Orion. "Our technology lets us combine data that our clients are already collecting with Orion First's proprietary data, to develop these amazing new tools for visualizing and reporting. Not just on portfolio performance, but also insights into market trends and potential pitfalls."

Delinquency Manager is aimed at helping executives simplify their data compilation, trend analysis, and pricing. It will help portfolio managers identify problem areas quickly and easily, and communicate performance to a wide range of stakeholders.

The product is the latest in a string of recent releases from Orion that includes its popular Customer Portal and Client Portal. Orion is also folding these technologies into a new program, Insights, that will offer both a la carte and client-only business analytics tools.

Features include:

• Executive overview of portfolio health: trends in portfolio size, monthly delinquency, and summary of factors that have the biggest impact on delinquency
• Interactive delinquency manager: compare performance across delinquency buckets and portfolio categories; slice or cross-filter by timeframe, origination source, industries, asset type, geography, or custom categories specific to your portfolio
• Interactive roll rate analysis to develop delinquency expectations for the coming months: compare how different portfolio segments roll through delinquency buckets, slice or cross-filter the portfolio to compare performance amongst subsets
• Customize your dashboard—or individual pages—with additional filters, such as risk rating, recourse, or categories unique to your business
• 24 months of automatically updated delinquency data
• Reports are easily exported into .PPT and .PDF for easy sharing

The agreement between the companies supports CFBank’s recent expansion into commercial equipment finance and leasing, offering financing to businesses secured by new and used equipment.

As part of the agreement, Orion will provide CFBank with full portfolio management services including the booking of newly originated contracts; payment processing and all cashier services; reporting covering accounting, portfolio data, delinquencies, and custom reporting; fully staffed, white-labeled customer service support, and delinquency/default management.

CFBank’s focus in this arena will be middle-market and small-ticket equipment finance transactions, loans, and portfolio purchases. It will originate transactions from third parties and bank customers before eventually expanding into vendor programs. “Our decision to go with Orion was simple: they’re the best at what they do,” says John Catalano, CFBank’s new president of equipment finance. “We want to stay focused on origination and credit underwriting. For that, we need a trusted partner for portfolio servicing and that is what we have with the Orion team.”

“We are excited to support CFBank with their entry into the equipment finance space,” said Quentin Cote, EVP of Orion First. “This is a fantastic team doing great work that aligns with our values. They are actively committed to helping small businesses succeed. As more banks enter the equipment finance and small ticket finance sectors, our industry as a whole benefits from their lending experience, their knowledge of commercial banking products, expanded customer bases, and ultimately, new ways to improve the experience of small business borrowers everywhere.”

Approximately $51.4 billion of new small-ticket (under $250,000) equipment loan and lease financing was originated in the United States in 2019, according to the Equipment Leasing & Finance Association in its 2020 Survey of Equipment Finance Activity, up from $47.5 billion in 2018. New business volume—which grew 10.5% in 2019—outpaced GDP growth (2.3% according to the U.S. Department of Commerce), with banks seeing the highest increase (12.8%) compared to independents (8.4%) and captives (6.9%).

Based in San Francisco and led by CEO and co-founder Denise Thomas, ApplePie Capital (APC) is a nationwide lender dedicated to the franchise industry, with transaction sizes ranging from $100,000 to $5,000,000. ApplePie’s Core loan product is designed especially for the needs of growing franchise brands and their franchisees, with an underwriting approach that focuses on high quality brands, units, and owners.

ApplePie sought out a partnership that will enable them to continue to grow their portfolio and provide a higher level of service. They also wanted complete, accurate and timely information on their portfolio—something Orion’s client portal provides.

“What we found in Orion are quality people who are engaged in the sales process and who we think will work well with our team and our franchisee clients,” says Thomas. “They clearly grasp ApplePie’s needs, know the marketplace, and share our focus on high-touch customer service.”

Servicing needs have grown more complicated for originators over the course of the pandemic, with more scrutiny needed on individual accounts and more access needed to evaluate data. According to Thomas, that’s exactly what Orion First offers.

“We’re honored that ApplePie is willing to entrust their customers to our care,” says Quentin Cote, EVP of Orion. “Our focus, attention, and technological tools gave them confidence that we were the right fit for the job.”

Focus, attention, and tools are no accident, but the result of an intentional strategy, Cote says. “Our mission is to provide a satisfying customer experience. And it’s clear to us the level of attention and care ApplePie has for its customers. We share a customer-oriented strategy.”

Based in Salt Lake City and led by President and CEO Tyler Deters, Paradigm is a nationwide lender providing asset-based financing programs requiring minimal credit criteria for businesses who struggle to find traditional financing.

With a growing portfolio, Paradigm’s funding source required a more robust servicing program than they were structured to support in-house. “We needed a long-term partner which would allow us to scale while allowing our funding teams to remain quick and nimble.”, says Tyler Deters. “Orion came well referred and has a reputation for excellence throughout the industry.”

“Outsourcing is a good long-term strategy, and a timely one,” says Quentin Cote, EVP of Orion. “Finance companies need to be adaptable and flexible to succeed. This year, our industry has seen lenders downsize their infrastructure investments and employee headcounts while the need to invest in customer experience, portfolio performance and portfolio insights continues to grow. Orion is an attractive option for lenders looking to build a scalable company that doesn't require the large, long-term capital investments in all three of those areas.”

According to Deters, outsourcing their servicing will allow Paradigm to focus on the customer, make faster funding decisions, and scale to new levels while moving all of its human resources to focus on the origination side of the business. Priding itself on its straightforward terms and transparent approach, Paradigm specializes in lending to borrowers who may fall outside conventional parameters.

Paradigm’s average transaction size is roughly $75,000, with a focus on construction equipment, titled trucks and trailers, manufacturing, and other heavy equipment. They originate primarily through a nationwide network of equipment brokers, generally lending to C & D credits, however, they have recently added products for customers with B credit.

SEATTLE — Orion First has begun servicing contracts for TEAM Funding Solutions.

Based in Austin, TEAM, like much of the industry, was interrupted by the pandemic, which forced a reevaluation of its business operations. Ready to focus again on growing originations, its leadership felt it was time to outsource their servicing as opposed to hiring additional operations staff.

“We’re proud to team up with TEAM,” says Quentin Cote, EVP of Orion. “We’ve been fans of theirs for a long time. Their mission of helping customers realize their dreams dovetails with our purpose. At Orion, we believe the world is a better place when small business succeeds. And we accomplish that through our mission to provide deeper insight, stronger portfolio results, and a highly satisfying borrower experience for small business lenders. We’re honored to be entrusted with these responsibilities for TEAM.”

And it’s the highly satisfying borrower experience that TEAM is looking for in partnering with Orion. TEAM President Ted Reynolds is quite familiar with Orion’s track record, as TEAM has worked with Orion’s leadership in previous business ventures.

Reynolds adds, “Our company exists to enable America’s small businesses to grow and prosper. We do that by granting credit to the many good business owners who are too often turned down by traditional banks. We want our capital to be invested in our customer’s success, not limited by large expenditures required to build, manage, and maintain the servicing related demands of our business. Our relationship with Orion will allow us to focus on our customers first and foremost, while growing a responsible and scalable company.”

Orion's new customer portal is a mobile-friendly website designed purely for the end user. With it, obligors can view, manage and optimize their accounts from wherever they are, at any time. It allows users to make payments, locate contract details and request payoffs, among other features. Affording small business owners more control over their accounts increases transparency and trust. For Orion's clients—lenders to small businesses—this means more highly satisfied customers.