In a world of consistently rising interest rates and turbulent financial markets, UK consumers are shopping around – en masse - for the best rates on their savings. The last thing a customer wants to come up against, when they show interest in a savings product, is a long-winded account opening process. Especially if the competition is distracting them with cash incentives.
The risk of slow processing
If you’re still processing account applications manually, with no option for digital origination, you’re wasting the customer’s time. Today there is an expectation for digital banking at every step of the journey.
If you’re asking customers to mail identification documents or visit a branch to complete the process, you’re risking lost documents and conversion leaks: your potential customers will turn to competitors whose processes are simpler - without a backwards glance.
When you’re running campaigns, manual processing can also hamper your ability to manage resource against account demand. And keeping up with changes in anti-money laundering (AML) regulations and identification checks is much more challenging without automation.
Take the friction out of account opening
A streamlined, easy application process is critical for increasing your conversion rates and getting ahead of the pack. Sandstone’s BankFast Apply digital origination solution has a variety of modules that enable banks and financial institutions to automate and digitise time-consuming manual processes.
These are the top five features within BankFast Apply that will elevate customer experience, free up your internal resources and support your overall banking transformation.
Feature 1: Document upload
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It’s a fact of banking that not every application can be approved without issue. Some scenarios may require further documentation to prove a customer’s identity – for example, where an ID check has failed.
BankFast Apply Admin (BFAA) allows for a bank or other financial institution to request documents from an applicant, and enables the applicant to upload the documents, all via a secure platform.
The platform caters for bulk uploads on both sides: a bank operator can request multiple types of supporting documents if needed, within a single request; customers can upload multiple files against each request using their dedicated portal.
Bank staff can also upload files against document requests on an applicant’s behalf, e.g., if a customer goes to a branch with their documents.
Seamless CX and Security. Seamless CX and security. Bank operators use the BFAA dashboard to view, search and monitor uploaded documents. From there, they can approve them or request further documents, and set the status of the documents within BankFast.
BankFast Apply supports a wide range of products from bonds and ISAs to Notice Accounts and more. It also caters for new and existing customers, joint, business and junior accounts, tailoring the process to suit each application type.
Because BankFast Apply is multi-channel, the bank doesn’t have to manage document requests locally across different programs. Customers can upload the documents anywhere, anytime, using their channel of choice including mobile banking, creating a single source of truth within BFAA. Experiences for customers and bank staff are vastly improved, with neither security nor compliance compromised.
Communications between bank and customer are standardised; all BFAA users have internal visibility over all correspondence and document requests sent to the customer. Gathering customer documents is no longer a tedious, manual experience, for bank staff or customers.
Feature 2: Tranche Management
Sandstone Technology’s automated tranche management feature balances a bank’s incoming deposits with its outgoing lending, taking pressure off product management and treasury teams. It also reduces risk associated with managing the lifecycle of deposit products and guessing product tranches.
The software manages the flow of retail and business deposits easily and quickly, whether ISAs, term deposits/bonds, regular savers or instant access.
With in-built notifications and real-time monitoring against pledged, funded and/or application volume limits, operations staff don’t need to log into the system to check and monitor products 24/7; nor do they need to pull reports from core systems and try to match them with current product performance to aid in decision-making.
Savings products can also have a hard stop, i.e., be automatically deactivated when they reach a pre-set limit. Calculating funded amounts can happen at application stage, limiting the risk of not getting the funds you need.
Sandstone’s automated tranche management system can save time and resources, and help you move faster on decisions. With fewer manual processes and predictions involved, it also reduces human error in reporting – and the chance of regulation breaches.
Read more about this feature in our recent blog.
Feature 3: Native API Integration
BankFast Apply facilitates native integration to core banking systems, enabling straight-through processing for new and existing customers (unless further information is required). Data can be easily transferred, with pre-built APIs allowing you to integrate with third-party services.
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Proven integration with the majority of core systems means fast onboarding - in as little as two to three months, while integration with customer service interactions supports seamless experiences for customers.
With just three integrations into banks’ existing architecture it is easy to implement with your existing processes.
Cross validation of customer data and integration with third-party data services including Companies House, TransUnion, RiskNarrative and Loquat ensure compliance with your policies as well as government regulations. Support for new regulations is built in as part of the product roadmap – integrations allow for quick AML and know your customer (KYC) checks, taking pressure off internal operations and compliance teams.
Feature 4: Configurability
Empower authorised staff to make changes to your application interface quickly without engaging your IT teams or causing system downtime - in-depth technical knowledge is not required to make functional or graphic changes.
Whether adding a new rule to the decision engine or updating a section in an application form, this feature makes it easy for BFAA users to update the solution to suit their organisation’s needs, and to meet ever-changing compliance regulations and market conditions. New products can be launched in minutes with configurable application forms. Existing products can also be removed just as easily, through the BFAA interface.
(The user interface itself is also configurable to enhance the customer experience and match your brand tone, look and feel.)
Feature 5: Automated Channels
When an application arrives through BankFast Apply, it is assigned to the relevant channel, whether ‘new to bank’, ‘existing customer’ or ‘operator’ (i.e., branch/call centre apps).
The operator can see in the dashboard how many applications have come from each channel. This allows staff to report quickly on the number of new customers coming to your financial institution and for what products, the number of existing customers taking additional products and also how busy applications are in the call centre – which in turn helps with resource.
The automated account opening capability means the operating staff don't have complete any manual tasks if an application is approved. This inbuilt feature automatically generates and instantly issues the account credentials to the customer. This means the account can be accessed and used straight away, without waiting for a customer number or ID to arrive in the post, giving the customer a faster and more convenient experience.
Sandstone Technology solutions for banking transformation
BankFast Apply helps create an engaging and hassle-free application experience. In fact, new customers can open an account in under three minutes. Originating savings accounts has never been simpler.
Automating highly manual processes means you save on resources, reduce acquisition costs and time to market, making your bank far more responsive to changing market conditions and opportunities. And BankFast Apply sits in front of your core system, integrating easily with existing backend systems, so you don’t need to change your core banking system.
Our digital banking solutions are already servicing established financial organisations in the UK including Cumberland Building Society, Shawbrook Bank and Arbuthnot Latham Banking.
We enable straight-through processing, real-time account opening, tranche management, strong customer authentication and regulatory compliance. Choose from multiple delivery models including cloud, as well as optimised journeys covering multiple savings products (regular savers, bonds, term, ISA, etc.), retail and commercial deposit origination and servicing, amongst others.
Whether you’re already using BankFast Apply and wish to add one or more of the above modules, or you’re new to Sandstone Technology, contact us to arrange a demonstration.
Published Feb 2023
