Key Questions to Ask About Your Business Lending Platform Innovative Insights CHALLENGE: Community banks need to serve small businesses better during the financing process so they can compete with digital finance solutions that have become business owners' preferred option. SOLUTION: The right lending platform can deliver tremendous value if bankers know how to evaluate which platform is right for them. It's not every day you add a key software platform to your bank's core technology list. How do you know which business lending platform is best for your bank? We've put together a list of key questions to ask about your lending platform to find out. Does the platform handle your entire loan origination process? It's time to examine your bank's loan origination process from end to end. Document your process from onboarding to credit decisioning to nurturing customer relationships. Does your digital lending platform enhance each of those steps? Take a hard look at the features the platform offers across the whole loan origination process to make sure you're not going to be left with major gaps. Is the platform configurable? The right loan origination system will integrate with your bank's critical systems and provide easy access to your existing tools so that data can be transmitted seamlessly and securely. Make sure you understand how easy it will be to connect your lending platform to the essential systems your bank relies on to keep running smoothly. Does the platform support all your lending products? Community banks offer a wide range of products and services to their small business clients. Make sure any loan origination software you're considering can support all sectors of your business and also gives you the option of introducing new products down the road. You may be offering SBA loans and business lines of credit today, but your next big opportunity could be in commercial real estate financing, or a new term loan. Make sure your platform can support the diverse range of products you will need to offer. How does the platform handle risk management? Your lending can't be profitable without accurate creditdecisioning. And the more accurate your decisions are, the more profitable you can be. Your business loan origination software should support a profitable underwriting process for your community bank. Ask your vendor if you have the ability to configure your own credit parameters and change them as market conditions dictate, too. How do your customers feel about using your platform? The ideal loan origination solution comes close to being frictionless for your small business customers. Speed is a top priority for customers. So find out how long it takes for customers to complete a loan application. A commercial lending platform should be easy for all of your customers to use, and should work smoothly on all devices. Don't get caught out by forgetting to ask this critical question! Darren Hecht, SVP of Business Development darren.hecht@biz2x.com // 917-860-6965