In an exclusive interview with B&C, Phoebe Wallis, client solutions director at Griffin (pictured above) — a digital bank and banking API builder and provider — we discussed how utilising fintech throughout the lending process could deliver speed and precision.

“I think we're living in a time where financial services have gotten more contextual,” said Phoebe.

“A lot of the products that you and I, small businesses, [and] large corporate access are much more tailored to their needs than maybe they were 10 years ago.”

Phoebe highlighted the wealth of fintech platforms and tools available across the financial sphere, from APIs and systems that monitor deployed capital on facilities, to decisioning software and technology that matches senior funders with businesses.

In the past, activities like reconciliation and creating reports for funders had been done manually via in-house systems that required a lot of time and resource.

However, this can now be done by integrating the appropriate banking APIs. While bringing something new to a product suite could have taken a long time to implement, public APIs can speed up this process significantly.

“The beauty of this is you're all integrated into the same thing. It's a single operating system at that point, you're not having to build out teams, and you get to build really powerful integrations easily,” explained Phoebe.

“I think you can see a lot more efficiency across a market like lending, which is complex and difficult, and you can simplify it while being able to rely on incredible technology you don't have to build yourself.”

Starting at the borrower, Phoebe sees open APIs as a key tool to integrate financial information into one area, making the need for gathering bank statements, utility bills, and other elements redundant, saving borrowers time.

According to Pheobe, this would more likely retain a borrower if they do not have to “wrestle” with a bank’s interface and upload a series of PDFs.

For the underwriting process, Phoebe says that APIs can eliminate the need to manually search for a business’s credit score due to credit reference agencies also utilising APIs, meaning underwriting packs can be assembled with minimal human intervention.

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For the underwriters themselves, Phoebe explained the benefits of open APIs: “It’s also easier for the underwriter, they're going to spend less time gathering the information and more time analysing it, and I think that's really powerful.”

For funders, Phoebe explained that information in the form of what has been lent, repaid, and now in collections, can be easily sent to them by lenders, without the need to pull CSV files and socialise them.

“For funders, that data and that de-risking of the repayments, especially in the more challenging credit environment we're in now in, is quite powerful. It’s going to provide them with a lot more comfort,” commented Phoebe.

As banking and lending moves further into digital realms, Phoebe feels that the high-street banks trail where other lenders are managing to embrace tech.

“I think that one of the bigger problems you have, especially with very established high-street banks, is that the digital experience is not good,” said Phoebe.

“If we are moving to an increasingly digital space, you need a good user experience, and I think that that's why you've seen fintechs and digital lenders booming the way they have done, because they have great customer journeys.

“I think a lot of the credit decisioning tooling has been picked up quite quickly. I think people want smarter, more dynamic decisioning; you want your underwriters to have a much richer pool of data, but I think a lot of lenders have been very accepting of the technology that's been brought into the sector.”

However, cost can still be an issue, along with other factors.

“I think affordability is a big part of it. Some management systems can be very expensive — and prohibitively expensive.

“When you think about specialist lenders, there is (a lot) of knowledge still in people, and there are some credit lines that are incredibly difficult to underwrite.

“I think it's fairly mixed but, as a sector, I'd say it's been very receptive to fintech.”

While digital lending’s star may still be rising, Phoebe and Griffin continue to ensure the customer’s journey is as smooth as possible, with streamlined APIs leading to more efficient communication.

“There's definitely an onus on your banks, your lenders, your alternative finance providers to invest in a good journey for your customers if there is going to be no contact made.”

Phoebe continued: “Or ensure that you have the channels of communication where you can extract the right information, impart the right information, and provide contextual, tailored, impactful credit products to the wider market.”