In Season 3, Episode 15 of Lending Made Easy, Bryan and Mitch discuss the importance of automation in tickler management throughout the lending process to track exceptions, ensure regulatory compliance, and build stronger relationships with borrowers.
Bankers encounter significant inefficiencies with manual systems due to the need for constant data entry and updates across multiple platforms. This process is time-consuming and prone to errors, leading to potential financial repercussions and strained client relationships.
Manual systems rely heavily on human input, which increases the likelihood of oversight and inaccuracies. This can result in missed deadlines and incorrect data, potentially leading to compliance issues and financial penalties.
Automation streamlines processes by consolidating data into a centralized system, reducing the need for repetitive manual tasks. This not only saves time but also allows bankers to focus on more strategic activities, enhancing overall productivity.
By automating tickler management, banks can significantly reduce human errors, ensuring that all critical deadlines and compliance requirements are met. Automated systems provide timely alerts and updates, helping to maintain consistent adherence to regulatory standards.
Automated systems facilitate seamless integration, allowing for real-time data sharing across departments. This improves the flow of information, supports better decision-making, and provides a comprehensive view of risk management and client interactions, ultimately leading to improved relationship management.
Mitch: Welcome back to Lending Made Easy. Today we're going to really dive into a game changer in the world of commercial lending, automating your tickler management and the lending process. In lending efficiency and compliance are really the North star and automating tickler management can drastically reduce manual errors and, and really help ensure regulatory compliance throughout the entire process.
So really streamlining your tickler management. It can help lenders focus on what really matters, building better client relationships and growing the business. So, Bryan , just want to kind of kick this off. What are some key areas where automation can really enhance tickler management and lending?
Bryan: It's critical to so many areas of the banking process, the lending process in particular, but I think it's also important to kind of level this up a bit where the banks that we've worked with think in ticklers and they think of, Hey, that's that thing I do in my core, or that's that thing that I do to make sure I'm getting tax returns at the right time or financial statements at the right time, where we think in terms of.
Tracking items because there's so much that you need to track. There's so much you need to keep in tune with, as you said, to make sure compliance is, is taken care of, to make sure my processes are effective, to look at how I automate and it encompasses. How I think about tasks and who needs to do what, when it encompasses all aspects of document management.
So not just those financial documents, but when you show up to get a car loan versus a boat loan versus the small business. An operating line quickly identifying the entire set of documents. Are you a new customer? And thus I need to get articles of incorporation or you're a consumer. So I need to get a driver's license or other proof of identification, having that fire automatically so that I don't have to rely on the experience of the person engaging with them.
Have they done a lot of auto loans or are they on their first day at the bank and they have no idea what they're doing. So being able to identify and track documents across the process to then report on it and be able to understand what's coming due, what's 30 days out, 60 days now, what's 30 days past.
Starting to flirt with compliance issues at that point in time. How do I build in processes that allow me to verify that what's happening is appropriate. We use this example all the time when we're doing demonstrations where you can request things from the borrower through a secure portal as an example and allow them to upload a document. And I might be asking for this year's tax returns and you're browsing through your folder structure and you accidentally grabbed the picture of your cat you took yesterday. That's great. I fulfilled the tickler. I fulfilled the tracking item, but it's a cat. I need to kill that and send it back to you.
So how do I build in processes of verification? And then how do I keep the entire organization in sync? Right? So throughout the workflow that I'm doing. Where I am in the process, what I've requested, what's out of SLA, what's at risk of going out of SLA. How do I communicate and collaborate across that?
How do I leverage technology to say, Hey, Mitch, you've got 15 things that we need from you tomorrow. Are you prepared for it? And it gets to tomorrow. How can I escalate that to your manager? How can I engage everybody in the process? So it's soup to nuts and it starts at that first interaction and goes through whatever onboarding process.
Am I doing a new loan? Am I doing a new deposit? What am I bringing you on for through the ongoing care and feeding and making sure on a yearly basis, I'm getting the documentation I need, you know, those aspects. So I don't know where you want to go. We can talk about specific aspects, Mitch, because it touches the entire process. It touches the entire organization.
Mitch: Almost overwhelming, right? I guess when you start thinking about tracking items throughout the entire lending process, where do you see the really the biggest lift when you're able to, to really automate this process?
Bryan: Your biggest lift comes in the 80 20 rule and you look at it, where can that apply? So there's aspects of the process where you'll, where you'll never get 80 20, but there's aspects where you will. So it's looking at your products. And where you have true products, so it gets harder the bigger in commercial lending you get, because if I have a consumer auto loan, that's very standard.
Every bank does it the same. I just need to collect the necessary documents, your, maybe it's proof of insurance as a closing item. It's information about the vehicle itself before I make the loan. Probably want to copy your driver's license, make sure you can operate a vehicle, but they're very standardized.
You can build those into the process. Whereas if I'm doing a multi facility complex commercial deal, it's going to be hard to script out too much, uh, that's going to be required, but I can, I can still do the basics every time I do that. I need to make sure I have articles in corporation. I need to make sure I have updated financials. I need to make sure I have certain things that can be, you know, systematically built. So it's, it's focusing on what is standard every single time and doing that at your, I'll call it the application stage, that first entry point. How do I arm the front line. So your loan officers, whomever is engaging with your borrower, how do I arm them with the tools so that in that first interaction, I collect as much as I possibly can that I know I'm going to need.
So that's not where you start to put in the things that make it unique and different. That's not where you put in proof of your role as a Dungeons and Dragons leader of the quest thing. You put in the driver's license, you put in the financial statements, you put in the things that, that happen every single time helps with your turnover, helps with your training.
I don't have to rely on the experience. I just get what I need when I need it. And then probably the next area is going to be your pre close making sure at that point, am I ready to close? Do I have everything? Based on all that I've built up through the workflow, because now the system knows a whole lot more, you can start to encapsulate more of those edge cases in the pre close and then finally in your, your post close work, that's where depending on the organization that can be some of the ongoing setup. So what am I doing to set up? What I need at review time, what do I need quarterly, annually, et cetera. Some people will put that into your post close as opposed to portfolio management, but those are probably the three big areas is right up front, my first interaction, trying to make that as seamless as possible. So I'm not having to go back. Oh, and then, Oh, I forgot. I need that really impact the borrower experience. It's the pre close, making sure before I go to committee, before I try to decision this loan, that I have everything. I'm not going to get that question at credit committee of, well, hey guys, this is all well and good, but where is X? You never want to be caught in that situation. So using it to make sure I'm ready for those, those efforts and then the ongoing care and feeding.
Mitch: I think that's some good points and something else that I'm thinking about here, Bryan, is just this idea of, when you start thinking about this 80 20 rule, that, that 20%, that might be odd, right? I think there's a big piece of this where that you mentioned collaboration kind of at the start here, we're understanding what's been asked for already, what's already been collected so that we're not going to one of our largest commercial clients, and asking them for the same document three times or asking them for a document that they've already given to someone else that I just didn't know about, right?
I think automating these tracking items, this tickler management process can really help provide that white glove service that we talked about, right? Where I'm your financial institution. I know you, I know what this process is. I know where you're at in the process, no matter who I talk to. Everyone's walking in the same direction, right? I think there's a lot to be said for that. Been thinking a lot lately, like really the most important currency at a bank. Isn't the dollar it's trust. Right. And I think this is an area where we can really make or break it.
Bryan: Absolutely. You're spot on, Mitch. You know, the trust is so key. It's so important. The number of touch points between A financial institution and the customer continues to kind of decrease. I can count on one hand, the number of times I've been into my bank branch in the last 12 months. Wouldn't come close to using all the fingers.
So when I do engage, it needs to be high quality engagement. Because if two of the five times that I'm in the branch, you're asking me for something that I already provided or that I uploaded in a portal or that for whatever reason you don't actually need, that's 40 percent of my interactions are negative.
So it's, it's so critical now that every engagement is top notch that I show you that, you know, who I am and you're delivering to me what I expect based on all the other interactions I have with other providers in my life. So I would agree with you there that that visibility, that transparency, the ability to engage across the financial institution, not crossing wires that I'm not sending you a letter requesting the financials when the RM just emailed me yesterday. Baking those into the process and eliminating the human error as much as possible is critical.
Mitch: Yeah, and it's really difficult to do that when you're working out of a spreadsheet that's sitting on someone's laptop somewhere, right? So, Bryan, thanks for sharing your insights today. I think this is a, this is an area that, you know, a lot of people, I don't, I don't want to say overlook, but really, Don't think a whole lot about when they think about the commercial lending process and really automating things and the value that can be added.
I think what you brought up, just focusing on those things that are standard for every loan. We tend to focus on the things that are so different and unique, but being able to really automate those things that are standard provides a huge lift for any financial institution. And especially when it comes to managing a larger portfolio.
If loan volumes start to pick up thinking about just the sheer volume of paperwork that's involved. So I think a lot of great things for someone to be able to take away and think through what they can do to automate their tracking items, their tickler management system. So thanks Bryan, for your insight and thanks everyone out there for listening to today's episode of Lending Made Easy.