If we were ever to wonder why agility in operational excellence commands such a premium, the past few months have provided countless examples.

The new world of rising interest rates has made demands of lenders that have been missing in action over almost a decade. Affordability models, so often reliant on ONS data, have creaked and needed revisions as the cost-of-living squeeze has highlighted the shortcomings of the timeliness of the data. In response, lenders have added an uplift of 10% across the board or focussed on the specific energy components. At the time 10% probably seemed reasonable but in August, Citi bank went public with its expectation that inflation to breach 18% in the first quarter of 2023.

But agility in underwriting is only part of the story. Systems and processes have come under intense scrutiny as many lenders have endeavoured to get markets in and out of the market quickly lest they become inundated on unprofitable products and suffer the service collapse that forces them to temporarily shut doors.

And brokers and their borrowers of all ages and types, once happy to see people face-to-face, have learned how to interact digitally and their expectations of online service have increased accordingly.

The impact of all this on lending propositions going forward cannot yet be fully understood but what is crystal clear is that the key to successful delivery going forward will be to provide the right product to the right borrower at the right time. This will support a focus on outcomes and address concerns about vulnerability but will require a granular understanding of the borrower.

What this looks like is ultimately a decision for lenders, but operational decisions are enabled and constrained by the systems they operate. Cloud solutions, however, bring with them the ability to offer vast interoperability and connectivity which means modernizing can be securely undertaken with less risk of outages and swiftly targeted across specific parts of the organisation. Our SaaS cloud approach means lenders can automatically add capacity to meet surges in demand (in response to a hike in interest rates) and to scale in seconds rather than weeks. It’s implementation to suit the lender not the supplier.

We also automate the release of new code into production so that it benefits all users but does not forego customised solutions. Lenders simply get the best standard of what everyone else has but with specific and customised configurations to support lending strategies.

Of course, there is much more available through our platform but in this market, agility Is the key to not finding yourself behind or squandering money because of poor operational performance. The constraints of old technology have never been more apparent or in some cases costly.

Being in a market at the right time to lend profitably requires flexibility and elements of bespoking that can offer scale quickly when you have the right product for the right moment.