Finance is under the most dramatic transformation in decades.
From the beginning of mobile payments to AI-powered lending, fintech innovations are changing how customers engage with their banks and take care of their cash. Sayle Roberts, VP Commercial Lending at First Financial Bank, provides his insight to get a lender’s perspective.
How The Mobile Revolution Moved to The Main Stage
Asked to identify the most significant change in customer banking behavior over the last half-decade, Roberts states: “I think the biggest change has been the shift to mobile transactions. As a society, we have been heading in the online direction for a while now, but within the last 5 years, I’ve seen it more specifically shift to mobile devices. People love speed and convenience at their fingertips.”
It’s more than a preference change; in other words, it’s a profound re-imagining of how banking is delivered and consumed. The shift from desktop to mobile-first web banking services has challenged banks to fundamentally redefine their online offering. The process that used to necessitate visiting a physical branch or, at the very least, sitting down with a computer can now be taken care of in seconds from anywhere.
The outcomes go well beyond checking one’s account. Banking “on the move” has emerged as a way for customers to manage their financial needs, from transferring money to taking out loans. That transformation has been fast-tracked by general technology adoption habits, but the banking world likely needed to adjust more rapidly than most sectors.
Speed and Convenience: The New Non-Negotiables
Fintech’s emphasis on speed and ease may be more revolutionary than any other facet of the industry. Roberts stresses this repeatedly, insisting that these are no longer just nice-to-have features. “The younger generations have known nothing but speed and convenience their whole lives. It’s not a ‘perk’ anymore. It’s non-negotiable.”
This generational transformation has delivered a problem for some traditional banks. Banking, which used to take place on business-day cycles and could require multi-step approval processes, now finds that when people demand an electronic response, it will come within seconds. For a strong contrast, Roberts offers the way digital-first banks have disrupted the lending market: “Digital-first banks use automated applications, instant credit checks, and same-day approval. Again, the world today has become extremely impatient, and they have put an extreme emphasis on speed and convenience.”
Like night and day compared to the old way, conventional lending “required signed applications, followed by long manual underwriting procedures that changed hands multiple times throughout the entire process,” Roberts said. This time-consuming process just doesn’t measure up to automated processes that can deliver loan decisions in minutes instead of days or weeks.
The larger cultural landscape Roberts alludes to is especially revealing: “even TV commercials are a thing of the past nowadays with the rise of streaming.” This doesn’t just apply to banking; this is a sign of how deeply ingrained the expectation for on-demand experiences has become in every part of life.
Digital Transformation in Lending
For niche banks like FFB, fintech innovations have equipped them with the tools to update and automate their operations without sacrificing personal service. Roberts states: “Our online banking platform and the ability to make loan payments directly from their computer screen or iPhone. Also, the e-signing of loan applications has been a game-changer as well.”
The difference eSignatures made cannot be emphasized enough, particularly in the case of commercial lending. Roberts points out that “the ability to electronically sign applications has drastically improved the lending process, allowing us as lenders to immediately move forward with the underwriting process and not have to wait on a physical signature. Especially on the commercial side, eSign allows us to service customers from all over and collect signatures from out-of-town or out-of-state guarantors.”
This technical development has removed a big constraint of the lending process. The geographic hurdles Roberts refers to could be a problem for some banks, which have customers throughout larger areas but only a smaller number of brick-and-mortar locations. eSignatures literally removed geography and timing as a source of friction in the borrowing journey.
