The mortgage landscape is evolving faster than ever. Customer expectations are high, and competition is fierce with new FinTech’s disrupting the market. Lenders need to adapt quickly and offer more compelling customer experiences. But legacy technology is one of the biggest challenges stopping mortgage lenders from achieving their vision.
With disparate systems across channels and brands, paper-based, spreadsheet-driven processes and siloed operations, customers face longer wait times, limited transparency, and slow time to completion. Not to mention the high cost-to-serve and operational inefficiency that lenders are experiencing.
Technology promises a way forward
According to a recent research study commissioned by nCino and Celent surveying 37 banks and building societies in the UK and Ireland, we’ve seen that over 72% of mortgage lenders reported a growth in IT budget for 2022. Lenders are examining their operating models and looking towards technology as the answer to help overcome these customer experience and efficiency hurdles.
The right technology allows lenders to automate workflows and eliminate low-touch interferences. Cloud-based platforms are now providing the capability to provide a streamlined digital experience with minimal manual intervention to deliver a more customer-centric mortgage journey.
Not only that, but lenders can also get to market more quickly, gain greater agility, improve risk management and have the ability to offer a more personalised service that customers have come to expect.
Digital transformation is still seen as risky
The prospect of digital transformation can feel daunting, and there are often roadblocks standing in the way of change:
Technological:
Legacy architecture and high technical debt makes it difficult to know where to start. Inflexible platforms and networks of point solutions make scalability almost impossible, with systems and data that don’t speak to each other. How should lenders best migrate their legacy technology to a new platform while effectively managing risk at the same time?
Operational:
An organisation’s culture can have a big impact on the success of a digital transformation project, especially when it comes to implementation. Different departments may have competing change agendas, or deeply ingrained risk aversion from leadership can make it hard to initiate change. Skills gaps also perpetuate this problem; without solid project leadership across departments and centralised knowledge, it can be difficult to ensure a successful transition.
Financial:
Finally, total cost of ownership of these legacy estates can be high. On top of that, the upfront cost of replatforming can be seen as an obstacle for banks. Although in fact, it’s often considerably less than the cost of not investing in your digital transformation due to lost business to competitors or because of high cost of manual processing or maintaining technology.
A strategy for success
Lenders are starting to see digital transformation as a necessary path to ensure they continue to adapt. Successful transformation strategies need to be built from the ground up, with all business units aligned and a clear strategy that considers the impact on operating and delivery models, alongside a strong technology roadmap.
Join experts from nCino and PwC on Thursday 29th September at 1pm BST, as they challenge the assumptions about the difficulties of digitally transforming institutions and discuss the solutions available to lenders in the mortgage industry.
Register here for the webinar to learn:
- What lenders find challenging as they embark on transformation projects
- Advice for those about to re-platform
- The role technology can play and what to prioritise when it comes to vendors
- The common risks and mitigants associated with a client’s move to the cloud
- The attributes of a successful change programme
Register for nCino’s webinar with PwC on 29th September to learn ‘How to De-risk your Mortgage Transformation’
