Black Lake Digital Markets, a subsidiary of Black Lake Investment Solutions, today announced the launch of the ACUMA Lending Exchange, a fully integrated, end-to-end mortgage platform. The Exchange is designed exclusively for credit unions affiliated with the American Credit Union Mortgage Association (ACUMA). Built on Black Lake's Correspondent in a Box™ technology, the Exchange gives member credit unions a single, cohesive operating environment covering every stage of the mortgage lifecycle: underwriting and eligibility decisioning, pricing, commitment, quality control and compliance, asset distribution, and investor settlement.
For the first time, ACUMA member credit unions now have access to an institutional-grade technology stack that unifies what has historically been a fragmented, multi-vendor process. This enables the credit unions to manufacture and distribute conforming and specialty mortgage assets efficiently, within a single, scalable counterparty framework.
"Credit unions deserve a mortgage platform built around their needs, not retrofitted from technology designed for banks or IMBs,” said Jay Patel, Chief Revenue Officer at Black Lake Digital Markets. “The ACUMA Lending Exchange covers the entire loan journey: eligibility at origination, automated QC, best-execution pricing, compliant transfer, and investor distribution. It's a single counterparty relationship that replaces five- or six-point solutions, and it's built to scale with the credit union community."
The platform addresses the full continuum of mortgage activity, from the moment a loan is evaluated for eligibility against investor guidelines, through QC validation, pricing and commitment, electronic document transfer and boarding, and distribution to buyers. Credit unions operating on the Exchange benefit from a single relationship, a single data environment, and a single accountability structure across every step of that workflow.
"ACUMA exists to help credit unions compete and grow in the mortgage market,” said Peter Benjamin, President at ACUMA. “The ACUMA Lending Exchange is a direct expression of that mission, giving our member institutions access to institutional-grade technology and execution capabilities that were previously out of reach. We're proud to partner with Black Lake to bring this to the credit union community."
The ACUMA Lending Exchange is powered by Black Lake's proprietary product suite, with each solution addressing a distinct stage of the mortgage process:
- Underwriting & eligibility: Translates agency and investor guidelines into automated underwriting logic, and enables credit unions to evaluate loan eligibility at the point of origination. Rules are dynamically updated as investor guidelines change, keeping credit unions in compliance without manual rework.
- Quality control & compliance: The Rule & Eligibility Application Service applies client-defined compliance rules to loan files post-classification. Uses OCR and document intelligence to validate loan-level eligibility and flag defects before they reach the investor, turning QC into a proactive process.
- Data normalization: Loan tape and document normalization tools that standardize collateral data across originators. Produces clean, investor-ready file delivery and consistent pricing inputs regardless of source system.
- Pricing & commitment: Real-time mortgage asset pricing integrated with third-party reference rates, provides best-execution analysis across a curated pool of authorized buyers using note-rate band, winner-take-all, pool-level, and loan-level commitment methodologies. Supports agency programs (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Ginnie Mae) as well as specialty products, including jumbo, non-QM, ITIN, and home equity investment loans.
- Transfer & boarding: Electronic loan document transfer and investor boarding platform that automates post-commitment loan delivery, accelerates settlement timelines, and eliminates manual document handling between counterparties.
- Repurchase risk mitigation: A synthetic bifurcation insurance overlay protects participating credit unions from downstream repurchase exposure across the full asset lifecycle. Removes one of the most persistent barriers to secondary market participation for smaller institutions.
The platform supports agency and specialty product distribution across Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Ginnie Mae (FHA, VA, USDA), as well as non-QM, jumbo, ITIN, and home equity investment loans. With this, it provides credit unions with the product breadth to serve a full spectrum of member borrowers while maintaining operational efficiency.
Early response from ACUMA member credit unions has been positive, showing a strong demand for the platform.
To learn more or receive information on the upcoming webinar, contact Jay Patel, CRO, at jaypatel@blacklakeinvestments.com
About ACUMA
The American Credit Union Mortgage Association (ACUMA) is a nonprofit trade organization representing credit unions and mortgage industry professionals with a shared mission of expanding credit union participation in the residential mortgage market.
About Black Lake Digital Markets
Black Lake Digital Markets dba Black Lake Services is the technology arm of Black Lake Investment Solutions headquartered in Wayzata, Minnesota. Black Lake Digital Markets develops proprietary platforms for mortgage underwriting, quality control, pricing, trading, transfer, and compliance — including RuleStudio™, READY™, MATRIX™, HyperDrive™, DataVision™, and Correspondent in a Box™. Black Lake's platforms serve originators, servicers, investors, and intermediaries across the primary & secondary mortgage market(s).
Black Lake is the marketing name for a group of affiliated companies providing a range of services. All services are provided through separate agreements with each company. This material is for general information purposes only and is not intended to provide specific advice or a specific recommendation. Black Lake Investment Solutions LLC (“Black Lake”) wholly owns Black Lake Digital Markets dba Black Lake Services LLC and Black Lake Investments LLC.
Black Lake does not provide tax, legal, or accounting advice. Black Lake is not a licensed insurance company and does not underwrite or sell insurance products.
Forward-Looking Statements
The statements contained herein may contain certain forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are, by their nature, subject to significant risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements may include, without limitation, statements relating to the companies' business prospects, future developments, trends and conditions in the industry and geographical markets in which the company operates, its respective strategies, plans, objectives and goals, ability to control costs, operations, margins, and overall market trends.
When used herein, the words "anticipate," "believe," "could," "feel," "estimate," "expect," "going forward," "intend," "may," "ought to," "plan," "project," "seek," "should," "will," "would" and similar expressions, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements reflect Black Lake and ACUMA's current views with respect to future events and are not a guarantee of future performance or developments. You are strongly cautioned that reliance on any forward-looking statements involves known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Actual results and events may differ materially from information contained in the forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors, including any changes in the laws, rules and regulations relating to any aspects of company's business operations, general economic, market and business conditions, including capital market developments and changes or volatility in interest rates, and developments of the company's competitors.
Subject to the requirements of applicable law, neither Black Lake nor ACUMA intends to update or otherwise revise such forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. As a result of these and other risks, uncertainties and assumptions, forward-looking events and circumstances discussed herein might not occur in the way Black Lake or ACUMA expects, or at all.
Accordingly, you should not place reliance on any forward-looking information or statements. All forward-looking statements herein are qualified by reference to the cautionary statements set forth in this disclaimer.
