Commercial lenders are increasingly squeezed by market expectations of fast lending decisions. This customer expectation crunch causes many commercial lenders to rush through their underwriting process, which results in more errors and poor lending decisions.
The problem is that the success or failure of commercial lenders depends on their ability to ensure the credit worthiness of businesses. As a result, many commercial lenders feel there is no way to solve the quandary of the manual data deluge.
The good news is that there is an emerging technology known as Optical Character Recognition (OCR). What was once a manual process of trying to accurately record the large volumes of data needed to assess a prospective borrower’s financial strength, has not been automated by OCR.
OCR technology electronically takes data from financial documents such as tax returns and automatically feeds the data into powerful software programs that analysts can use to slice and dice the data however they please.
In this blog post, we will cover:
- Reducing errors and optimizing operations
- Increasing precision and accuracy in underwriting analysis
- Enhancing customer satisfaction
- Improving employee morale and retention
Let’s take a closer look at four specific benefits of OCR technology in commercial lending.
Table of Contents
1. Reduce Errors and Optimize Operations
Commercial loan underwriting requires more data processing and analysis compared to other lending branches of financial institutions. OCR technology empowers commercial lenders to say goodbye to manual paper processing by automatically converting printed data into machine data so that it can be used in lending software programs. The result is a substantial reduction in data errors since there is less human involvement in the data processing.
Additionally, commercial lending operations are able to be optimized with shorter timelines and leaner staff requirements.
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2. Increase Precision and Accuracy in Underwriting Analysis
With OCR, the underwriting team has more time to conduct thorough analysis to ensure deals are creditworthy. Underwriting teams using manual paper processes end up making hasty decisions because most of their time was spent doing manual data entry.
3. Enhance Customer Satisfaction
Since the data that was once on printed paper is now easily searchable in a commercial lending software program, lenders don’t have to spend as much time tracking down the information needed for financial spreading analysis. This increases the overall speed of the commercial lending process.
As a result, business owners are much more satisfied because they are receiving faster decisions from their lenders.
4. Improve Employee Morale and Retention
OCR technology is a welcomed addition to employees’ tech stacks because it greatly reduces the need for tedious and time-consuming data entry tasks. This allows lenders to have more time for more meaningful tasks such as credit analysis and customer service. The end result is happier employees who are more fulfilled in their jobs and more likely to stay with the company.
Roundup for Commercial Lending
As the technology ecosystem for commercial lending continues to evolve, lenders are more motivated than ever to adopt automated platforms, such as FlashSpread, that employ OCR technology. The automation provided by OCR allows commercial lenders to make smarter lending decisions and increase customer and employee satisfaction.
Are you a commercial lender ready to bring OCR technology into your tech stack? Schedule a demo of FlashSpread’s next-generation OCR platform today!
