Expanding commercial lending has been a strategic focus for many banks over the last few years, and this movement aligns with the growing number of Government-backed schemes to support SME lending. However, challenges inherent within commercial credit processes often hinder growth efforts.
When it comes to commercial lending, most credit processes – from application through to reporting – are often manual and time-consuming, open to inconsistencies and less supported by functional business areas.
While consumer lending has become more sophisticated, for commercial lenders, inadequacies in credit processes can create huge inefficiencies that often translate into delays for the customer, missed revenue opportunities and wasted time and resource.What’s more, increasing regulatory focus is putting the onus on the lender to make consistent and transparent commercial lending decisions.
At the same time, whilst the Corporate and SME lending market is currently dominated by a handful of large players, a series of digital start-ups and Fintech companies are moving into the space, launching new and innovative business services that challenge the status quo.
That’s why now more than ever, business lenders require tools and processes that enable them to accurately and confidently assess risk in an efficient and compliant manner. By taking basic steps to enhance common practices in the commercial credit process, lenders can comply with regulation, improve the customer experience, as well as deploy consistent processes without introducing onerous frameworks or significant I.T. change.