Mortgage lenders do not hesitate to reevaluate their legacy loan origination system if they find it is wasting time and money—they take advantage of technical integrations that automate data import and other new innovations. Lenders would also never keep a legacy system if there was a threat it could spontaneously combust and destroy their data or hold on to a system they knew was holding back loan production. For some reason, however, lenders continue to maintain one of the most notorious legacy systems on the market and attempt to work around its downfalls each day—the outdated, clunky paper system.
Paper is hindering lenders at a time when compliance and efficiency are key to profitability in the midst of record-low volumes and increasing government oversight. While many professionals believe paperless processes solely generate costs savings, lenders should make the shift to paperless to gain the efficiencies needed to boost productivity.
Paperless is not just about savings or being trendy and digital. In addition to dollars and cents, it is about improving risk management and identifying a strategic means to quickly and easily scale production. By engaging experienced, expert software and service providers, lenders can modernize their internal operations as well as vastly improve service response times.
Going paperless continues to be thought of by many as simply a means to save money on paper, toner, mailings and stamps as well as a way to be kind to Mother Nature. But these are only cost savings for a lender and going digital should be viewed as a way to respond to sales opportunities in a timely manner. There is much for lenders to leverage—they can increase production, service and efficiency to process and close more loans by taking the step towards a truly paperless environment.
Going paperless to increase revenue as opposed to simply reducing costs means a lender’s potential return on investment is exponential because it drives top line growth. There is always room to increase sales and grow a business, but if lenders are only focused on the cost side, they can only drive cost to zero. Of course, the cost savings are certainly a benefit, but if electronic document handling is just about reducing paper and toner use, big deal. Where is the true business value?
