The reasons to invest in digital lending solutions continue to become more powerful. There is growing demand from customers for greater personalization and for ways to easily apply for loans, preferably using their smart phones. There is a need for lenders to become more agile, add new loan products and services, and provide customers with an exceptional experience. Digital lending solutions offer a scalable and cost effective opportunity to meet all of these goals.

The results of the most recent research by the American Bankers Association (ABA) confirm this. For customers, says the report, non-digital loan processes result in slow turnaround time, low transparency and low predictability. The report quotes a Federal Reserve survey, which found that 45% of respondents complained of long waits for a credit decision and 42% felt the application process offered by traditional banks was difficult. In contrast, online lenders did far better—only 17% of their customers complained about long waits and 26% complained about difficult processes¹. It, therefore, comes as no surprise that the global digital lending platform market size is expected to grow from $5.1 billion in 2018 to $12.1 billion by 2023². 

Fortunately, traditional lenders are not totally behind in meeting the needs of the digital-savvy customers. Many have digital lending capabilities that allow customers to check their account information, loan status, and make online payments. But large parts of their lending processes (applications, onboarding, underwriting, etc.) continue to be executed in siloes. It has become pertinent to invest in digital lending solutions to enhance their digital quotient.

What should lenders expect from a digital lending solution in 2019?

The answer is fairly simple -- top loan origination solutions should aim to improve borrower experience (largely through self-service), boost productivity (more loans processed using fewer resources), increase revenue per loan (using automation) and safeguard compliance (by staying updated on the latest requirements).

The first step to getting started is to look for solutions that are strong on automation, can be easily configured for new products/services, can access emerging digital tools to create differentiators and position the organization as a next-generation lender. A good solution should provide:

• Support for multiple channels including retail, wholesale, correspondent, consumer, and consumer direct
  
• Automation for loan approval processes, compliance and quality management
• Enablement for customer-driven workflows and engagement
• Innovation through digital extensions, third-party integrations, and web APIs
• Complete lifecycle coverage including product and pricing engine, workflow, fee engine, etc
• Dashboards that provide user with views of what to work on next, business reporting and improved productivity
• Collaboration capabilities allowing lenders and settlement agencies to work on documents collectively

The world of slick and engaging customer experience, credit decisions taken in minutes, revenue gains from more loan processing capabilities, and lowered costs are becoming a reality with digital solutions.

To find out more about the capabilities that your lending solution must have to future-proof itself contact us. Our experts, whose award-winning platforms have helped develop versatile solutions for some of the top global lenders, will brainstorm to meet your innovation agenda.

Reference

¹ https://www.aba.com/Products/Endorsed/Documents/ABADigitalLending-Report.pdf

² https://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/4668457/digital-lending-platform-market-by-solution