Independent Banker - November 2018 - 31

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Mid-Atlantic region, of fintech provider Finastra.
" Automated lending offers a rich, comprehensive
user experience. The customer can access the
bank digitally at his or her own convenience. This
is the way that people want to interact with their
bank. " Sunshine says more than 2 billion people
access their banks digitally, a figure that is projected
to be 3 billion by 2021.
In addition, millennials, who are becoming
an increasingly important element of community
banks' customer base, and later generations
prefer digital interaction with their financial
institution to visiting a branch in person.
Even if a bank hasn't instituted a full digital
process-from automated decisioning to processing
and compliance-automating at least parts
of the lending process helps community banks
compete with fintechs and the large lenders, says
Neill LeCorgne, vice president of banking for
bank software provider Sageworks. " Online lenders
brought technology and speed to the lending
process. Large banks have taken many of the
smaller loans. Community banks' lending processes
are too labor-intensive. "
Large financial institutions were quick to add
automated lending technology once it became
available. They had the necessary IT staff to
handle any technical issues and the budgets to
purchase the technology. In the past few years,
the technology has become simpler to use, no
longer requiring internal IT staff to operate it.
Prices have also dropped substantially. " Offering
lending on a 24/7 basis changes the dynamics of
the bank, " LeCorgne says.
Better efficiency for Kaw Valley
In Wamego, Kan., $175 million-asset Kaw Valley
State Bank found the labor savings of automated
lending to be a big benefit. Before adding automated
lending (Fusion MortgagebotPOS), chief
operating officer Jody Price says a bank loan officer
would need to key all of the loan details into
the bank's own systems and then into Freddie
Mac's system, meaning approval or denial of the
loan took several days.
Now, applicants can fill out all form details
online and upload required documents, such as
pay stubs, tax transmittals and W-2s, allowing
Kaw Valley State Bank to make the initial decision
the next business day, according to Price. In
Quick stat
3
billion
Estimated
number of people
who will access
their banks
digitally by 2021
" It's inherently more
secure, and from a
decisioning standpoint,
it's inherently more
consistent and
objective. "
-Ben Wu, Loan Scorecard
all but a very small number of cases, the bank will
abide by Freddie Mac's decision on loan approval.
The bank only approves about 2 percent of applications
that don't meet Freddie Mac guidelines.
Without automated lending capabilities, manually
retyping information not only consumes a
banker's time but is also more likely to result in
errors. Sunshine estimates that automated lending
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Independent Banker - November 2018

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