SecureLend this week announced the commercial launch of its AI-powered lending platform, designed to make loan origination up to 10 times faster and 60% more cost-efficient for community banks, factoring companies, and alternative lenders. The Delaware-based fintech said it is the first to introduce a large language model (LLM)-agnostic architecture, enabling institutions to switch between OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, DeepSeek, and others—eliminating vendor lock-in.
Community banks face mounting pressure from digital-first competitors. Over decades, their share of banking assets has halved, and in key segments like small business lending, digital challengers now capture 30–50% of new business annually (FDIC). Without modernization, losses could reach double-digit declines per year.
A Freddie Mac study estimates manual mortgage origination costs around $11,600 per loan, driven by document verification and underwriting. SecureLend automates these workflows end-to-end—from AI-powered borrower communication to credit memo generation—reducing costs and accelerating processing.
Pfuetze, who previously originated assets for Tower Community Bank, Thread Bank, and Broadriver Asset Management, founded SecureLend after a decade in fintech, beginning with his 2011 QR-based payments startup PAYMEY.
“We’re not just digitizing old workflows—we’re reimagining how lending operates in the AI era,” added Pfuetze. “Banks can mix and match the best models—Claude for analysis, GPT-4 for communication, DeepSeek for batch tasks—all through one orchestration layer.”
