Shawbrook Bank is a specialist UK savings and lending bank founded in 2011 to serve the needs of SMEs and individuals in the UK with a range of lending and saving products. The bank embraces innovation to meet its customers’ needs and to grow its revenue.
In 2021, Q2 helped Shawbrook launch a new loan origination system as part of a wide-ranging digitalisation programme that provides the bank an “agnostic” platform to build a range of customer journeys for different products. Self-serve capability is also included, with portals for brokers and direct customers, while automated workflows are built into the system
Removing manual ‘roadblocks’
The project’s success has met a significant objective for Shawbrook: greatly lessen the need for manual processing.
For Stuart Doignie, the bank’s head of fintech strategy and commercialization, the system is designed to replace manual processes and begin lowering origination costs. “It’s not about straight-through processing, but more using technology to do the heavy lifting for us,” Doignie said. “We may have had underwriters filling in credit templates, and completed financial statements, then providing recommendations, which is data we can obtain automatically from other sources.”
Driving costs down along the way
Doignie, like many others engaged in alternative finance, firmly believes that digital origination costs can be far lower with automation. He even believes that under certain scenarios that digital origination costs could be “up to 80% less than those with manual processes.”
Shawbrook will continue to challenge the conventional approach of the mainstream banks, with a thoughtful and good-sense approach to the way it does business. Q2 stands ready to help.
Read more about Shawbrook Bank and its effective use of digital technology in AltFi’s Digital Banking State of the Market Report, 2021 edition.
