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On Monday, May 6, $4.4 billion Westbury, New York-based Jovia Financial Credit Union officially launched a wholly owned commercial real estate servicing CUSO, Jovia Commercial Lending LLC.
The CUSO was designed to help small financial institutions, such as credit unions, community banks, commercial mortgage brokers and lenders, manage and/or expand their commercial real estate lending services. The organization is led by President Casey Mauldin, who also serves as Jovia Financial's chief revenue officer and chief lending officer. Other leaders of the CUSO include Treasurer Karen Smith, Jovia Financial's chief financial officer, and Secretary Howard Sim, vice president of business lending.
Regarding staffing for the CUSO, Mauldin said that as the CUSO grows, its leaders plan to assign full-time staff solely responsible for CUSO work and potentially expand in size.
Jovia Commercial Lending will support multiple back-office functions for small lending institutions nationwide, including credit unions and community banks, and specifically for institutions in the New York City metropolitan area, will provide commercial loan origination services as well as reviewing, structuring, underwriting and closing commercial loan leads generated for financial institutions in accordance with lending policies, underwriting guidelines and closing procedures, Jovia Financial said.
Some of the back-office functions that the CUSO will support include commercial credit underwriting, pricing guidance, credit analysis, portfolio management, loan structuring, etc. They will also review banking and credit history, third-party reports, and provide risk assessment recommendations.
Additionally, Jovia Financial stated that members of the Jovia Business Services team will provide annual credit reviews of the current financial and credit information of the commercial real estate loans in the portfolio to meet credit risk management requirements, as well as collateral analysis reviews, stress testing reviews and covenant compliance analysis reviews based on current market conditions.
“Underwriting commercial loans requires significant investments in staff, technology, due diligence and compliance with state and federal regulatory requirements, which can be challenging or even impossible for some institutions,” said Mauldin. “Our experienced team removes the obstacles and burdens of undertaking these tasks, allowing our clients to grow their portfolios and reduce expenses. By leveraging our purpose-built infrastructure, credit unions and financial institutions have the opportunity to grow or build their commercial loan portfolios, stay within budget, speed up underwriting and better manage their portfolios.”
Mauldin said Jovia Commercial Lending is currently providing underwriting services to existing credit unions and is in contact with other businesses interested in the company's services.
“We expect that as we expand our reach, opportunities will arise for engagement with even more credit unions and financial institutions,” he added. “We know that with all the regulatory and economic challenges facing credit unions today, these obstacles are hindering their efforts to address new opportunities and existing portfolios. Demand is strong, and Jovia has the resources, expertise and staff to meet the needs of the market.”