TruMark Financial Credit Union Partners with Happy Money for Strategic Personal Loan Program

Kelly Botti

​Happy Money, a leading consumer finance company dedicated to empowering individuals through responsible lending, today announced a partnership with $3.4 billion-asset TruMark Financial Credit Union. By leveraging Happy Money’s participation program, TruMark Financial is further diversifying its balance sheet and deploying capital to generate higher returns through short-duration, high-yield personal loans.
 
TruMark Financial selected Happy Money as a strategic partner to enhance its personal loan portfolio without requiring additional operational overhead. Through the unique participations structure, the partnership creates a balanced approach to risk management while delivering short-duration, high-return assets that provide yield and diversification to the credit union. Unlike traditional loan pools that may include seasoned loans, Happy Money’s participation platform ensures participating credit unions receive access to newly originated loans, creating even higher potential for strong performance. By participating in Happy Money’s loan program, TruMark Financial gains access to high-quality assets nationwide, enabling greater financial flexibility and risk mitigation.
 
“At TruMark Financial, we're committed to innovation and building strategic partnerships that enable us to scale with intention. Partnering with Happy Money allows us to strengthen our lending strategy in a meaningful way by diversifying our balance sheet and strategically deploying capital into short-duration, high-return assets,” said Kelly Botti, President and CEO at TruMark Financial Credit Union. “Happy Money’s participation program offers a unique opportunity to engage with a network of like-minded institutions and strengthen our financial stability and growth.”
 
Happy Money launched its participation program to help financial institutions optimize their balance sheets while reducing concentration risk. Leveraging the company’s proprietary lending platform, Hive, Happy Money’s participations program seamlessly and digitally connects loan originators with institutions seeking to invest in these high-quality assets without needing to directly originate the loans.
 
“The Hive portal has become a valuable tool for our team,” said Steven Olson, Executive Vice President and Chief Lending Officer at TruMark Financial Credit Union. “It gives us a clear, efficient way to plan, manage, and execute our participation activity. Every loan closing is handled in a consistent, digital, and timely manner, which helps us maintain confidence and accuracy throughout the process. On top of that, the Happy Money team is always responsive and proactive, they’ve made collaboration simple and effective.”
 
With no minimum commitment required and the flexibility to engage in forward flow or one-time loan purchases, Happy Money’s participation program is designed to meet the unique needs of each credit union partner. The company provides partners with insights into credit policy and pricing as well as portfolio trends, allowing credit unions like TruMark Financial to easily understand loan forecasts and projected returns. This transparency enables credit unions to intentionally deploy capital in ways that diversify their balance sheets.
 
“Happy Money has created a powerful ecosystem of lending partners, fostering collaboration and innovation through balance sheet diversification, risk mitigation and efficient capital deployment,” said Matt Tomko, Chief Revenue Officer of Happy Money. “Just like a great team builds depth with top-tier talent, our participations program helps credit unions strengthen their lending portfolios, optimize performance and position themselves for long-term growth. Our partnership with TruMark Financial exemplifies how we’re enabling credit unions to grow meaningfully while using lending as a force for good.”

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