In recent years, mortgage lenders have repeatedly had to learn the name of the game in mortgage loan processes, especially as it relates to robotic process automation (RPA). Perhaps this term has become so oversaturated that it implies automation is easy or even applicable to every facet of the loan process. However, most of the time, automation as it’s being defined isn’t really automation at all. For example, lenders may have a process automating property validation, but how does this add to your overall business strategy and goals?
True mortgage automation offers several benefits, including:
- Saving you money
- Boosting customer satisfaction
- Making your loans higher quality
- Enabling you to close loans faster
- Helping detect fraud
- Improving regulatory compliance
In this two-part blog series, let’s break each of these down further:
1. Automation saves you money
One of the main tenets of automation is that you can leverage technology to accomplish tasks currently being done manually but at substantial savings. And didn't Ben Franklin say, “time is money”? When the repetitive aspects of the mortgage loan process are automated, your staff could save six or more hours a week — almost one entire workday, according to average Robotic Process Automation (RPA) vendor estimates. That's time they could be spending on work more valuable to your organization. It’s also estimated by MeridianLink Marketplace RPA partner vendor, Mortgage Automation, that automation at a minimum can help reduce your current spending by 25-30%.
2. Automation boosts customer satisfaction
In addition to freeing up your staff from performing monotonous, time-consuming tasks, automation helps improve customer satisfaction. When manual, repetitive tasks are decreased, loan officers can spend more time delivering better service to your customers. That's important because 96% of customers will look elsewhere if they receive poor customer service. And losing customers impacts your bottom line and reputation.
3. Automation makes your loans higher quality
Working with automation, you can be assured that repetitive tasks will be performed accurately, applying quality control to every loan. "Out of every 100 steps, a human is likely to make 10 errors, even when carrying out somewhat redundant work."
However, since mortgage automation leaves little room for error, your loans will be of higher quality. Automation means fewer touches by underwriters, fewer issues with the investor, and smoother loan funding. Automation allows you to audit each loan, and since a robot is executing your workflow, you can expect to have 99% accuracy on your loans. Automation can also help you do away with paper documents, enhance collaboration, and reduce data errors, resulting in higher quality loans at lower costs.
In our next blog post on the topic, we’ll explore the latter three benefits listed above.
Until then, check out our on-demand webinar with a lender discussing how RPA is impacting processes and workflows to help close loans faster.
