The client has embarked on a major programme of change to improve their business capabilities, to establish better understanding of their business architecture and implement relevant technology in support of their business processes. Mortgage acquisition was one of the primary targets for improvement. The client has their own in-house origination system but the underwriting process largely relies on administrators and underwriters manually processing applications, interpreting policy in a time consuming and inefficient manner, prone to delay and error.
Sandpiper Consulting were engaged to provide project management and business analyst services to assist in delivering the required business and technical change. The team initially worked with the client to establish a clear understanding of the current operating model. Mortgage applications are assessed on the basis of defined credit risk policy rules and affordability calculations with Decision in Principle (DIP) and Full application processes identified as the key aspects of the mortgage acquisition journey. These processes were analysed to establish the potential for improvement in conjunction with relevant technical tooling. This work enabled development of a future state model and a delivery roadmap proposing the implementation of business process and technical improvement in phases.
Sandpiper assisted in the execution of a procurement event to select a suitable supplier partner and in the first phase of work, a credit decisioning solution will be implemented and integrated with the origination platform enabling the DIP to be fully automated. As a result, the majority of applications will return a decision to the applicant in seconds where at present it may take over a day. For the Full application, the evaluation of evidence provided by the applicant is currently the most manual and time-consuming aspect and in future phases implementation of open banking and intelligent document processing will be delivered to enable Full applications to also be automated.
Alongside the core technological and business process improvements, two other primary areas for improvement have been planned for implementation during the first phase of work. Case management is currently provided through a combination of email and outlook mailbox manipulation and manual updates of fields in the origination system. Improvements to case handling will be implemented using the client’s existing Dynamics CRM platform. Management Information is also currently produced in a heavily manual and time-consuming manner. Decisioning data will be made more readily available for reporting through integration with the client’s Data Warehouse.
Governance and quality assurance processes have also been considered and the impact on these understood with required changes planned during the implementation. The wider mortgage acquisition journey also involves a number of related processes including identity verification, financial crime and fraud checks. A more closely coupled journey will be considered for future implementation including potential integration with the client’s Risk Narrative, valuation and property risk platforms.
The delivery of this business transformation project will improve the efficiency, accuracy and speed of response in the client’s mortgage acquisition journey, ensuring that they remain competitive and better positioning them to increase market share.
