When looking to buy a house, customers normally have no problems finding one that meets all their needs. However, the time needed to arrange funding tends to irritate both financial advisors and customers. The average mortgage application in the Netherlands takes 20 days. However, once an application has been submitted, a lot of valuable time passes for all involved parties and customers are left with doubts about whether funding will actually be provided. Believing that this process could (and should) be improved, Adaxio and Davinci decided to join forces in an attempt to significantly reduce the mortgage servicer’s application process. And this has been successful. Thanks to a fully automated process in Close Origination, it is now possible to issue an interest rate proposal within 2 minutes. By using automatic document assessment and performing automatic checks with various sources, it has also been possible to significantly reduce the time taken to complete the file.
Looking to drastically speed up the process
When customers apply for a mortgage, this is followed by a time-consuming process involving many manual actions, which include identity checks, credit worthiness checks and manual analysis of acceptance documents. Adaxio recognised the need to change this process.
Stefan Bruggeman- CEO Adaxio: “These days, everything can be arranged quickly and easily through digitization, with the exception of mortgage applications. We think this is rather outdated. In the past, we were not able to offer our customers the service and speed they deserved. That is why we decided to work with Davinci to find a futureproof solution that would significantly speed up the process. This vision resulted in an automatic acceptance tool, where manual actions have been minimized and a process has been designed where feedback and, if needed rejection, can take place at an early stage.”
Streamlined process and transparent acceptance policy
A fast and predictable application and acceptance process has been created because almost all steps in the process are digitized and automated. Once an application is received, it is checked automatically and supplemented with data from various sources. The output is then immediately integrated into the process and helps to improve fraud prevention, compliance and credit worthiness assessments. In addition, the Mid Office uses a fixed set of business rules, which leads to a clear and transparent acceptance policy.
Victor Collast – Senior mortgage acceptant Adaxio: “Clarity and transparency are appreciated by us and advisors alike. It makes it easier for the advisors to evaluate which customers comply with the acceptance policy. In addition, automatic processing means I no longer have to enter data manually, and I can focus on evaluating complex cases and exceptional situations.”
The required supporting documents are supplied digitally and are processed and evaluated automatically wherever possible. The time needed to evaluate documents has been reduced considerably, which means a lot of time has been saved during the whole process. Close Origination supports an STP application process, which helps to significantly improve FTR ratios. Another advantage of this approach is that it allows a complete, high-quality digital file to be created.
Quick response to customer’s mortgage application
Adaxio is able to issue an interest rate proposal within 2 minutes. This offers a great advantage because it gives customers a decisive answer to their mortgage application within a few minutes.
Stephan de Graaf – Manager Mid Office Adaxio: “It is essential for us to meet the needs of our customers and offer them the best possible quality. Compared to others, we are doing very well. On average, our complete process is three times faster than our competitors’, which results in satisfied advisors as well as satisfied customers!”
Strong collaboration and a tight-knit partnership
The collaboration between both parties was one of the reasons why the new process has been a success.
Stephan de Graaf – Manager Mid Office Adaxio: “Davinci and Adaxio share the same vision when it comes to digitalising the mortgage process, and that’s what makes our partnership so pleasant. We were in very close contact all throughout the process and are always trying to make improvements after seeing how things pan out in practice. A good example of this was the new functionality added after new legislation last year. In order to comply with this legislation, mortgages had to be fully re-checked on the offer date. These automatic checks have been implemented in a short period of time and save us a lot of extra work.”
This article was published in the ‘Fintech Coming of Age’ issue of the Dutch newspaper Het Financieel Dagblad of November 28, 2017.