One of the trends that Finance Magnates has been following in the online lending space is the collaboration between Fintech startups and brick and mortar banks. While on the surface these new lenders represent competition for traditional banks, there are many areas of cooperation between them. Examples of collaboration include the referral of customers who don’t meet bank lending requirements to marketplace lenders, the allocation of excess capital to investing in P2P platforms, and the licensing of technology.
Biz2Credit, an online lender that provides customers an efficient platform for applying and receiving loans, has recently announced that Customers Bank is licensing their technology. With the deal, Customers Bank will be using Biz2Credit’s lending platform to assist with customer applications, uploading of documents and status updates.
Rohit Arora, Biz2Credit Founder & CEO
Pennsylvania based Customers Bank expects that the digital solution, expected to be launched in early 2016, will boost applications for loans from small businesses by 33%. Connecting with Rohit Arora, Biz2Credit Founder & CEO, he explained to Finance Magnates that Automation will be an important feature for Customers Bank to hit their 33% goal.
Arora said- “Currently, Customers Bank has a "standard" bank process for small business loan origination and underwriting which is manual in nature”. As such, loan officers aren’t reviewing digitally uploaded documents or reviewing third party records such as tax returns and inventory lists from a central web based platform.
According to Arora, overall, the automation process is the key value add that should boost Customer Bank’s efficiency, as he explained: “Automating the process will enable the bank to process three applications for every two they do today. In addition, providing a digital experience for the customer, which will include transparency into the loan process, will increase customer satisfaction and retention”.
