Case Study: GreenState Credit Union achieves 26% higher approval rates with Zest AI

Growing Across The Credit Spectrum With GreenState Credit Union

GreenState Credit Union, the largest independent financial institution in Iowa, partnered with Zest AI to increase online lending, say yes to more members (especially in low‑income communities), and boost instant approvals. GreenState faced limits from traditional credit scores and debt‑ratio methods and needed a partner that could deliver superior performance while maintaining transparency, strict risk controls and fair‑lending compliance.

Zest AI implemented an AI‑driven auto‑loan model that incorporated roughly 10× more data (240 variables selected from thousands) to improve risk ranking across direct and indirect channels. The model made loan decisions 77% more accurate for A+ paper and 3× more accurate for B paper, drove a 26% overall approval‑rate increase (about $132M in additional annual originations), raised approvals more than 30% for women and Hispanic applicants (32% for protected classes), and generated roughly $11M in additional profit per year.

GreenState Credit Union

Amy Henderson ‍‍‍

Chief Consumer Services Officer