2022 was another year of change for financial institutions. As pandemic restrictions continued to be lifted, lenders began to adjust to the “new normal”. Although many things have started to return back to the way they were before the pandemic, one theme that has remained consistent is the importance of digital transformation. Throughout the last year, lenders continued to innovate at a an incredibly fast rate, and the pace isn’t expected to slow any time soon.
We spent time reflecting on 2022 and gathered the top 10 stories from the Numerated blog this year that explain how lenders are digitally transforming, and what they need to be successful.
The Four Levels of Business Banking Transformation
Among the trends in business banking in 2022, digital transformation was at the top of the list. This year, many lenders were focused on the continual innovation of their banking products, specifically in the business segment. As banks and credit unions begin the path towards digital maturity, it’s important that they have a clear understanding of where they are currently in their digital transformation journey and what their goals are for the future. This blog introduces The Digital Transformation Curve, a tool used to help lenders understand their technology goals and the steps they need to take to reach them.
3 Essential Digital Marketing Tips for Business Lenders
It should come as no surprise to lenders that small business customer expectations have changed. Many now prefer digital only experiences, which makes reaching these customers more of a challenge. This year, for Small Business Week, we shared three key marketing tips for business lenders seeking to reach more customers online. In this blog, you can learn more about the basics of digital marketing and steps your institution can take to get started.
Cornerstone Advisors: High Performing Banks Get Digital Account Opening Right
As lenders continue to innovate their offerings in 2023 and beyond, one key area of focus for many is digital account opening for businesses. Today, small business owners are now expecting the same efficiency in their business banking products that they already receive as consumers. In this blog, we take a look at a recent report from Cornerstone Advisors on high performing banks and the success they’ve found in innovating account opening.
Tips for Building an Automated Decisioning Strategy
Today, automation now plays an important role in business lending. With fintech competitors offering funding in a matter of hours, it’s important for lenders to bring this same level of efficiency to small businesses, or risk losing customers. Earlier this year, Dime Community Bank Senior Vice President Matthew Crennan spoke with us to share how the institution built an automated decisioning strategy using the Numerated platform. In this blog, we share a recap of the conversation and how lenders can get started with automated decisioning.
Build vs. Buy: Why Community Institutions Are Choosing to Buy
As banks and credit unions begin their digital transformation journeys, one of the first decisions they have to make is choosing to buy technology or build it in house. Oftentimes, for community institutions, building technology in house isn’t feasible based on the resources available to them. Many of these lenders have found success in partnerships with fintechs like Numerated. This blog explains why community institutions are choosing to buy and the benefits they’ve seen.
Elevate Your Borrower Experience with Efficient Customer Journey Mapping
In order for an institution to fully understand their customer experience from the borrower's perspective, it can be helpful to build a customer journey map. Oftentimes, when institutions can see the journey holistically from an outside perspective, it’s much easier to identify pain points that exist in the process. To better understand what a typical customer journey looks like at a bank operating on legacy processes, we spoke with an institution that had yet to digitize their borrowing and account opening experiences. In this blog, we take a look at the customer journey map before and after implementing Numerated.
Grow Your Small Business Segment with Digital Underwriting
Legacy underwriting processes for small business loans are extremely tedious and time consuming for lenders. They often cause delays in the loan origination process leading to a poor borrowing experience. With Numerated, lenders can accelerate underwriting with a system that reduces work by up to 90 percent. This blog explains how lenders can increase profitability and grow their small business segments using digital underwriting.
Why Balancing Digital and People Is More Important Than Ever
As online experiences become the top choice for small business borrowers, lenders are now beginning to evaluate the way that they utilize their branch locations. Although borrowers are now favoring digital, many still turn to the branch for assistance and advice on more complex transactions like small business loans. This blog takes a closer look at the new role that branch locations play in business banking and how lenders are balancing digital and in-person interactions with customers.
Technology's Role in the War for Talent in Banks and Credit Unions
This year, hiring top talent was a challenge for lenders. According to a recent survey by Arizent, seven in ten banking leaders reported that attracting talent was a challenge and 16 percent reported that it was an enormous challenge. As the war for talent in banks and credit unions continues, it’s important that they focus on seeking solutions that don’t require hiring additional employees. In this blog, we take a look at the current challenges in hiring and how they can be solved by implementing technology that allows lenders to do more with less resources.
What Potential SBA Rule Changes and SOP Updates Mean for Lenders
The SBA is working to further simplify the 7(a) lending process and expand access to funding for more small businesses with newly proposed rule changes and SOP updates. Among the potential changes is a proposed rule to lift the moratorium on available Small Business Lending Company licenses. If this rule is approved, three additional licenses will be granted to non-depository lenders. In this blog Numerated’s SBA lending expert takes a closer look at the proposed changes and how they will impact both the 7(a) program and lenders that participate in it.
