Metrics Monthly | December 2019 | UK Edition

Want to be “no-platformed”? Director of LendingMetrics, David Wylie, says lenders without automated underwriting are failing to compete online

We can all think of historic examples of new technology that took a while to get off the ground. Fax, email, online shopping, banking apps, were all at one stage the domain of a select few ‘early adopters’. Then, after a while, they reached a tipping point and took off. When they did, the select few became many, and then the many became the majority, until you were pretty much left

in the Dark Ages if you did not embrace them. There aren’t too many people left who do not use a smartphone or a banking app. Automated underwriting is now just at the tipping stage, where it is beginning to move beyond the early adopters. Within 18 months, I know it’ll be a big priority for those lenders yet to have it in place. Like all the other technologi- cal advances that have gone before it, they’ll want it because they’ll suddenly see the advantages that make the dif- ference between success and failure.

The most obvious is that users of auto- mated underwriting can be quick, very quick, compared to businesses run along manual lines. Once an application is completed, the yes or no decision is practically instant. Only referral cases need take longer. Instead of the tradi- tional wait at the end of the application form, the consumer has a result. Then there is cost. Users have a big overhead advantage, which can be used to offer more favourable loan terms or increase profitability.

06 | Metrics Monthly

December 2019 | UK Edition

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