FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn.–SPIRE Credit Union has been honored with the 2022 National Excellence in Lending – Best in Show Award from the CUNA Lending Council.
“We’d like to congratulate this year’s outstanding award winners for their inspiring achievements,” said Thomas Becker, chai of the awards & recognition committee and chief lending officer with Hanscom FCU.
SPIRE, in partnership with the St. Paul Port Authority, a local economic development agency, became one of the first credit unions in the nation to launch PACE (Property Assessment Clean Energy) financing.
“Collaboratively, they encouraged local government to pass legislation supporting the new program. The project is the result of several years of working to eliminate roadblocks to clean energy financing,” the credit union said. “This energy savings from the SPIRE PACE financing is the equivalent annual carbon dioxide emission reduction of 5,100,000 pounds of coal burned, 11,500,000 miles driven annually by a car, 896 homes’ electricity use for one year, enough to charge everyone’s smartphone in North America, and 5,451 acres of forests per year.”
The credit union said building owners have saved more than $700,000 in annual energy costs, new jobs have been created, and SPIRE has created a $700,000 annual revenue stream from the product.
SPIRE said it continues to be one of the only credit unions in the nation actively doing a high volume of PACE transactions.
“We are honored to be recognized on the national level for our work with the PACE loans,” said Cliff Wantz, SPIRE SVP/Chief Lending and Product Officer, “Our business lending team works hard to help businesses achieve an efficient and seamless lending experience. I am proud to see them acknowledged at this level.”