Case Study: First Service Credit Union achieves 23% higher approvals and near-instant auto-loan decisions with Zest AI

Fast, Consistent Loan Decisions with First Service Credit Union

First Service Credit Union, a $855M Houston-based credit union serving 68,500+ members, needed faster, more consistent underwriting and better decisioning for thin-file and middle-tier borrowers but lacked in-house data science. To achieve automated, lower-risk approvals without changing their business mix, they engaged Zest AI to modernize their auto-loan credit modeling.

Zest AI built an AI auto-loans model trained on three years of in-market loan data, evaluating over 12,000 credit variables and using roughly 300 data points to improve credit insight—particularly in the profitable middle tiers where it outperforms Vantage. The Zest AI solution cut decisioning time to 1–2 seconds, increased approval rates by 23%, drove an estimated $2.7M in additional originations, and delivered automation rates well above industry averages.

First Service Credit Union

David Bleazard

President and Chief Executive Officer