Does your team spend 8 hours a day, 5 days a week on research and loan software development for your lending platform? If not, I bet we have something to talk about.
A fintech organization (like FNI) is constantly looking to the future; uncovering new opportunities and advancements for consumer lending. Having hundreds of customer perspectives certainly helps. In fact, [insert yours here]! We leverage diverse insights, exploring new data sources, and trying new risk calculation methods, and the list goes on for some of the world’s top lending institutions. And after all of this, the view from the tip of the spear shows that the market still has vast improvements to make as the barriers to entry continue to shrink.
The Fintech Buzzword in Loan Software Development
It can be great to be classified as a Fintech in today’s market. Valuations can be through the roof! But, we know that the success of the company on a day-to-day basis has more to do with customer service and performance than an investor’s perceived market cap.
The team at FNI has focused on driving operating costs out of the consumer lending process making lenders more efficient and more profitable through outsourcing their origination process. Some FNI lenders target specific verticals such as solar or auto, while others offer a wide breadth of lending products (as well as fully custom loan software development). For both, being able to operate efficiently at scale is critical. And most, prior to outsourcing their infrastructure, couldn’t get there easily.
Over the past thirty (plus) years, the FNI team has dissected both the similarities and unique challenges of hundreds of lending organizations in order to build enhanced systems and processes that capitalize on both. This includes enabling custom loan processes within a day, providing lenders with the freedom to enter new markets with a unique competitive advantage, all while providing a high-level customer experience and generating increased revenue.
This focus on customer growth keeps our lenders in the FNI loan orchestration platform as the priority. And, when FNI customers do well, FNI does well.
Getting to the Bleeding Edge with Loan Software
If it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert, for most lenders, expending the resources to build world-class systems and processes is something better achieved by working with a technology partner than by starting from scratch. For example, in a traditional loan origination process, an applicant has multiple paths to take, even to get started. Then, there are products to choose from and the funnel builds:
- Is the applicant credit worthy?
- What next steps and how automated can we make the process?
- Is the lack of automation and optimization in this process costing us?
- …Many thousands?
- …Per month?
The team-built FNI platform has been on the bleeding edge of consumer loan origination practices for decades. For example, our newest platform takes advantage of updated tech, strategy, new data sources, more… pushing us and our lenders forward. When software is done right, the vendor (in this case, us) takes on the time and cost to develop capabilities, shielding customers from development costs, team investment, and any path that winds up being a dead-end.
Because of this time and financial investment, the average cost of processing a loan on the FNI platform has decreased by over 40% over the last 3 years while processing speeds have tripled. Zero-touch or no touch approvals are up by greater than 200% as lenders become better through automation. And, while we hope these numbers seem impressive, we don’t stop building, optimizing, and making things better. Check back in 2022 for proof.
Allocating Time to Skunkworks for Investment Return
Good partnerships don’t just happen, they take planning and focus. Fintech partnerships are no exception. In any good partnership, the goal is to reach economies of scale through division of labor. For FNI and our lenders, this allows the focus to lie on their loan products and customer relationships while we drive the technology platform forward.
This is why a new partnership can increase profits dramatically and why we work with our customers to funnel more than 20% of revenues into “skunkworks,” or exploratory development projects. By looking forward and leveraging experience from multiple lenders, we keep the competitive edge and stay in front of the rapidly changing market.
Growth Opportunities in Fintech Partnerships and in Loan Software Development
The traditional focus on innovation has been to look for new features to build. But we know now that the biggest returns for lenders comes when Fintechs start to work together to solve complex problems by combining capabilities. Gains that seem significant on their own only accelerate exponentially when they can be leveraged down multiple processes.
This is why the FNI platform automates the loan origination process for our customers, often orchestrating five to ten third-party relationships. Working within this ecosystem, learning how to better transfer data, reduce payloads, enable automations and leverage each other’s strengths, allows improvement in all aspects of the complex process for our customers. Always increasing value and reducing costs.
Our philosophy is open-source, not siloed—leveraging secure and expanded access to ideas, theories, and information. As the fintech market continues to mature, so will our connections and synergies, in tandem. And, with that, the entire loan orchestration ecosystem becomes stronger, and FNI lending customers gain all of the advantage.
Ready to build a better lending experience without the “build” part? Start with the suite of lending products and trusted team at Financial Network, Inc. Take a no-commitment product tour today to get started.
While we keep an eye on what’s coming next, and continue to stay educated and prepared to push the fintech industry forward, the loan origination software experts at FNI will keep providing insights and, of course, providing hands-on and high-level service to our loan origination platform partners. If you’re ready for direct access to decision strategy management and more, talk to a loan origination expert.
< Back to All Resources