Digital lending options for both small businesses and consumers have been growing rapidly during the last decade or so. This phenomenal growth has been powered by the incredible technological progress and the willingness of the consumers and lenders to embrace it. Thanks to the much-enhanced Internet connectivity in terms of quality and speed and the boost in the capabilities of especially hand-held devices, companies have been successful in reaching customers on the go with completely digitalized financial applications.
During the initial stages, digital lending had to encounter many challenges and obstacles in its path that led numerous people to question its effectiveness and viability. Would consumers trust and accept a digital-only channel? Do you think that the underwriting model would be successful? In what ways would the regulators respond and react to the digitalized credit processes? None-the-less digital lending was successful in finding and establishing a niche for itself in the financial services industry.
The introduction of digital technology has impacted both the online lenders and consumers alike. One of the major advantages of technology is convenience. Small businesses, startups, and consumers could put in their loan application wherever and whenever convenient to them. Lenders that embrace digital technology would enjoy the advantages of scalability and cost over the conventional lenders and they could have easy accessibility to the new target audience. Thanks to advancement in technology in the lending industry, lenders can easily reach customer segments that could not be reached earlier by traditional banks and conventional lending institutions.
Technology has completely revolutionized the lending industry and we can see the effects distinctly. Advanced financial technologies and technological tools have remarkably boosted the efficiency of the overall loan process, lender competition, and available resources. This has been fruitful and immensely beneficial to both lenders and borrowers alike. Today all financial institutions need to stay abreast with the latest trends of the lending market and gain a sure-shot competitive edge over the rest. Let us explore some of the most effective and unique ways for technology to prove to be beneficial to the lending industry.
Enter the Era of Automated Loans
As per expertise, thanks to the digital technology, lenders are offering loans online and borrowers are putting in their loan request applications online. Even though fewer consumers are still utilizing the traditional process of the loan application, more and more people have understood the convenience and advantage of putting in their loan requests online. More and more users are happy to get speedy loan approvals that too without the headache of extensive documentation or paperwork. They are enjoying smart deal structuring and speedy loan servicing process. Automated loans are way ahead of the loans previously approved by the traditional banks and other conventional financial institutions. Automation has made the entire loan approval process a lot easier and hassle-free. Automation ultimately saves a great deal of time.
More Data-Driven Approach
The days of lenders assessing your eligibility solely based on your credit score are long gone. Modern technologies and techniques have ensured that numerous markers could be used to determine your creditworthiness in a more detailed, accurate, and fair manner. This way you are never denied anything you deserve and will be able to secure lines of credit with relative ease, in a matter of moments.
Better Terms Available via More Competition
The Internet age has thrown open the loan market like never before, and lenders find themselves having to compete on loan terms and conditions to attract borrowers now, rather than being able to dictate all the terms as they did in the past. Tech-savvy customers can identify trustworthy lenders who offer them fair terms via the Internet, and could also learn about exactly how loan proceedings should go, what they deserve and how they should face injustices. This all goes a long way in regulating the market and ensuring that you as a customer could get a fair share. You are sure to get the best deals from reputed sites.
Technology Drives Costs Down
By moving a business online, the entrepreneur could conduct all their commercial activities without having a huge brick and mortar presence. Processes are expedited and more transparent now; more people could get access to the services they need due to newfound affordability that low operating costs allow businesses to provide. Traditional banking models, for example, are sorely losing out to modern online lenders who do not have to look after dozens of branches and can instead focus on their clients.
We Are in an Age of Electronic Closings
Studies reveal more customers are leaning towards closing mortgages electronically than following the traditional approach. It is no secret that consumers have been dissatisfied with the standard processes of reviews, signings, and long-drawn verification steps, but they had no alternative until recently. The electronic closing method is significantly more convenient, easier to understand, and just more optimal all around. It is still in its nascent stages but is certainly showing promise as the next big thing in financial dealings.
Technology Ensures Scalability
Automation has been hugely successful in reducing risks and training demands assisting lenders to scale more affordably for catering to peak seasons. This implies that there would be lower risks of degradation of quality. Moreover, lenders would be saving substantially on overhead expenses related to ongoing training.
Facilitates Fraud Detection
Computer-assisted review of documents could prove to be useful in exposing the fraud. We know that software programs are far more effective as compared to humans in identifying irregularities and errors which might be pointing to a particular issue such as names, addresses, or Social Security Numbers that fail to match perfectly across many documents.
Conclusion
Despite the numerous changes that have occurred in the online lending industry during the last decade or so, the inherent purpose remains the same-boosting customer experience and also adapting to the way consumers prefer to utilize technology. The digital era lenders have realized that nothing could help in enhancing the overall customer experience and establishing a flourishing online lending business apart from a perfect understanding of consumer psychology and customer requirements.
