Getting the technology right is crucial in the specialist lending market and our hardest-fought battlefield. Technology has had an astonishing impact on how we conduct our business today. It drives our underwriting, our risk assessment, and the way we design products. Technological developments have reduced timescales, helped retain margins, and bought rapid changes and major efficiencies. No one can afford to ignore the changes it has already bought to the market, and the enhancements it has the potential to bring in the future. So any mortgage lender, new or otherwise, should be investing heavily in it.
Starting from scratch
A new entrant like edeus has the advantage of starting with a blank sheet of paper. Building your platform from scratch is essential if you have aspirations to be a player in the market. If you want to stand out then it will have to have been specially designed for your target market. A lot of companies don’t bother building their platform from the bottom up and buy a generic system off the shelf. But then their platform won’t necessarily meet all the needs of brokers. The edeus system is bespoke having been built with the needs of the broker in mind, data entry is easy and everything is kept simple as possible, so that no valuable time is lost.
But technology will not just help brokers. It will also speed up the mortgage process. This is of huge importance, particularly to anyone in a contract race, at an auction or trying to buy a new build where fast completion is required. In the case of some non-conforming remortgage cases, delays in debt consolidation via mortgage approvals could mean the difference between keeping the bailiffs from the door or not. Hence edeus’s commitment to fastest funds release in the UK. With instant offers and remortgage funds released within five days where a physical valuation is not necessary. Not only will this streamline the application process, dramatically cutting down the time it takes to deal with a mortgage, but sophisticated scorecards will lead to a better quality of decision, too.
Of course, brokers will have a choice as to the level of service they want – instant offers, physical valuation reports or instant funds for remortgages. We aren’t going to force anyone to have an instant offer. It’s all about choice.
Not the whole story
But that’s not the whole story. edeus’ rapid response technology is the first in the market to be designed and built with a truly integrated and seamless end-to-end process, so brokers can provide their client with a quick and certain decision based on the loan amount, product and property requested. Our product selector displays all relevant products and cascades to an alternative scheme where appropriate. And electronic identification verification guarantees that in most cases no proof of identity is required.
For keeping on track, brokers can use our sophisticated client management system that goes beyond case-tracking. Allowing instant access to your 10 most recent cases and the ability to search entire pipeline cases using a flexible range of criteria and track case progress, sign up for case updates by SMS text messages as well as the standard e-mail notification, and keep up-to-date with the latest edeus product updates by downloading Edea or Edeo, our new vitrtual assistants.
Industry nirvana
And we’re moving towards the industry nirvana – the paperless mortgage. In the meantime, we’ll offer scanning and uploading documents and electronic verification to avoid postal delays. Therefore no one can beat us at the speed of offer and funds release. Our proposition is to provide a technology solution designed to meet intermediaries needs in a way that they have never seen before. Key points:
Instant unconditional offers and remortgage funds released within five days.
Decision showing maximum loan available, amendable on the spot.
Sophisticated client management with facility to scan and upload documents directly on to a case.
Automatic cascading to most appropriate product scheme.
