Member-owned Farm Credit cooperative increases automated lending application throughput hitting $10 billion milestone while reducing underwriter time
FICO, the leading global analytics software company, announced that Compeer Financial, one of the nation’s largest agricultural cooperatives serving rural communities across the Midwest, has upgraded its lending operations using FICO® Platform to deliver faster, more accurate credit decisions.
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Compeer’s innovative implementation has earned it a 2026 FICO® Industry Vanguard Award, for its transformational use of FICO analytics and decision management technology in agricultural lending.
Highlights:
- Compeer Financial processes over $10 billion in automated lending application throughput, since implementing FICO® Platform
- Compeer Financial accurately assesses risk while reducing underwriter time per loan, saving nearly 800 monthly hours
- Compeer Financial achieved 95% automated processing for loans under $500,000, nearly 70% for loans up to $2 million
- Compeer Financial has won a 2026 FICO® Industry Vanguard Award for transforming agricultural lending with advanced analytics and decision management technology
Compeer’s innovative implementation has earned it a 2026 FICO® Industry Vanguard Award, for its transformational use of FICO analytics and decision management technology in agricultural lending.
With its legacy credit system reaching end-of-life and loan demand accelerating, Compeer Financial needed to move from partial automation to intelligent, real-time decisioning, while maintaining strong member service and risk control.
“Our client members, farmers and agribusinesses often need fast access to capital, and we needed a loan decisioning system that could scale demand while maintaining our rigorous risk standards,” said Bill Moore, Chief Risk Officer at Compeer Financial. “In agriculture timing is everything. Whether it’s securing operating or equipment financing before planting or harvesting season or expanding their acreage with a farm real estate loan. FICO Platform delivered the speed, scale and automated intelligence we needed, allowing us to increase both our credit decision engine throughput and increase fully automated credit decisioning while improving decision quality and client experience.”
As a result, Compeer’s lending operations are now significantly more efficient. Automated processes have reduced underwriter time per loan, saving the team roughly 800 hours each month. Compeer now achieves 95% straight-through processing for loans under $500,000 and nearly 70% for loans between $1 million and $2 million — a significant improvement from the previous system. FICO® Platform now supports decisioning for loans up to $5 million, expanding Compeer’s digital reach across higher-value segments. The business results include a 52% year-over-year increase in loan volume throughput and a 14% year-over-year increase in loans eligible for automated decisioning instead of manual underwriting.
“Compeer Financial’s implementation represents the power and importance of modern agricultural lending,” said Nikhil Behl, president, software at FICO. “In an industry where timing can determine a business’s success or failure, this level of decisioning speed and accuracy is game-changing. We’re honored to be part of keeping rural America running.”
FICO Platform’s implementation has created a fully automated, end‑to‑end decisioning ecosystem for Compeer. Once a loan application enters Compeer’s system, the platform manages the entire workflow — from retrieving credit bureau data, to assessing risk, to generating the final decision — with complete auditability and transparency. This automation enables Compeer to handle seasonal volume spikes during critical periods like planting and harvest seasons.
“What Compeer has built isn’t just a more efficient loan process, it’s a lifeline for farmers who can’t afford to wait,” said Andy Lawrie, credit risk tech lead at Nationwide Building Society and one of the FICO® Decision Awards judges. “By marrying FICO’s decisioning intelligence with a genuine understanding of agricultural cycles and rural risk, they’ve raised the bar for what lenders in this space can and should deliver.”
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