The future of the commercial lending experience

A traditional commercial lending process based in manual tools such as email, spreadsheets, and word processing documents doesn’t offer many compelling benefits for borrowers. Lending team members do the best they can, but they’re held back by a slow-moving, complicated process that’s dictated by the tools they’re using.

The result for borrowers is a winding and potentially frustrating journey full of potential obstacles that repeatedly slow down or halt their progress toward securing a loan.

But what if borrowers could follow a much simpler path through commercial loan origination – one that’s powered by technology to automate, eliminate, and make more efficient many of the manual steps complicating the process? It’s possible, and with the right solution, organizations can map a new commercial lending experience that’s clear, collaborative, efficient, and intuitive.

Explore two alternate paths to a secured commercial loan

Just because a loan was closed doesn’t mean the borrower had a great experience. Download the infographic to see how borrowers might be in for a bumpy ride on a traditional commercial lending journey – and how that journey can transform with the right technology solution.

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The future of the commercial lending experience

Closing loans shouldn’t be the only metric of success for an organization’s commercial lending team. Lenders can consider two roads to secure a commercial loan and ask themselves: Which road do we want borrowers to experience?

Traditional lending journey

Lenders and borrowers might encounter many obstacles throughout the traditional lending journey

Step 1: Initiate the loan process and gather required information

Borrower experiences confusion regarding which documents are needed
Borrower sends wrong document
Lender loses password to borrower’s secured document
Lender can’t find email in inbox
Lending team member goes on vacation, so borrower document gets stuck in inbox
Borrower has no clear view of the status of their loan

Step 2: Credit analysis and underwriting

Underwriter can’t find a document
Lending team and underwriting team are uncertain about who is supposed to initiate next steps
Incomplete information is submitted, so team must track down info

Step 3: Loan committee approval

No centralized location exists for information, so document specialists must hunt down and organize info
Lender email with closing and funding update flagged as spam, and borrower misses email
Borrower is uncertain about progress and calls repeatedly for a status update

Destination: Commercial loan funded

Lending journey of the future

Imagine a much more efficient and intuitive process, simplified and made transparent by technology, with lending teams and borrowers benefiting at every stage of the process.

Step 1: Initiate the loan process and gather required information

Get the benefits of a self-service, mobile-friendly borrower portal
Show borrowers exactly what’s needed from them, and empower them to upload the right information
Eliminate document collection mistakes
Let borrowers track the status of their loan, cutting out the need for status update emails and calls
Allow borrowers to contact the lending team and schedule meetings online, avoiding phone tag or back-and-forth email chains

Step 2: Credit analysis and underwriting

Foster transparency, collaboration, and accountability with real-time dashboards
Keep the whole team on the same page with workflow templates that automate the loan process, consolidate completed activities, and standardize checklists
Nudge loans in the right direction with status indicators and automated notifications

Step 3: Loan committee approval

Give everyone on the lending team the access and clear visibility to reach a speedy decision on the loan by using a shared, secure location for documents
Automate repetitive, manual tasks to get lending team members back to doing what they love – strengthening borrower relationships and serving their communities

Destination: Commercial loan funded

Crowe CX for Commercial Lending gives lenders the tools to transform and simplify their borrowers’ experiences

With access to features such as a self-service borrower portal, built-in workflow templates, real-time dashboards, and automated notifications and status updates, commercial lending teams can deliver the fast, seamless experiences that borrowers want.

Ready to speed up and simplify your commercial lending process? Let’s talk.

Is your commercial lending process weighing down the experience for borrowers – and for lending teams?

Crowe commercial lending specialists have helped banks and other financial services organizations evaluate their commercial lending processes, and one thing we’ve discovered is that many organizations don’t realize how much inefficiency has built up in their processes for commercial loan origination and underwriting.

A process built around manual tools such as emails and spreadsheets made sense in the past, when those tools were the best available. But when organizations continue to rely on legacy tools to close loans, they can get stuck in a “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it” mindset. This resistance to change leads to frustrations and slowdowns for commercial borrowers and lending teams as they try to move loans through the process.

Consider the following questions regarding the commercial lending process. A “yes” to any of the following might indicate that it’s time to reevaluate your lending process and explore a new solution.

Do borrowers need to call or email their loan officer to check the status of key document submissions or the overall progress of their loan?
Do borrowers need to schedule meetings through email, often requiring multiple emails back and forth to figure out scheduling?
Does the lending process involve frequent re-keying and manual inputs into spreadsheets, word processing documents, and PDFs?
Do documents containing sensitive financial information get downloaded, reattached, and passed around numerous times via unsecured email attachments?
Is the primary workflow management solution a manual checklist? And does each team have its own checklist?
Does the lending team rely on phone calls, emails, or meetings to know the status of a loan and figure out who is working on what?

The good news is that all these issues are fixable with a single solution: Crowe CX for Commercial Lending.

Finally, a people-first digital solution that makes commercial lending simple.

Schedule a demo

Let’s simplify and transform the commercial lending experience together.

Get in touch today for a live product demo. We can walk you through the platform and show you exactly how Crowe CX for Commercial Lending can empower your lending teams and deliver a simpler, more seamless borrower experience.

Crowe CX for Commercial Lending