The Importance of Digital Lending as Pandemic Continues
COVID-19 has changed the landscape of the world we live in. People are social distancing, families are learning new ways to be together while apart, and more people are taking care of business online than ever before. It’s not just eCommerce where business is booming. Digital lending is enjoying exponential growth as the pandemic continues and new restrictions and lockdowns loom across the country and around the world.
Lenders who have not yet embraced digital lending do so at your own risk of becoming irrelevant or one of the many U.S. businesses to fail during the coronavirus crisis. Here’s what you need to know to understand the concept of digital lending a little better and why it is so important for today’s lenders to embrace the concept while taking proper precautions to protect themselves and their customers within the digital landscape.
What is Digital Lending?
Essentially, digital lending is making use of online technology to either originate or renew loans. The digital route works for personal lending as well as SME lending and helps to make the application and renewal process more convenient for customers.
Not only can borrowers apply or renew on their own time but they can also apply from the safety and comfort of their own homes. In a nation facing growing rates of infection and hospitalizations from COVID-19, this is a HUGE comfort.
It also makes it easier for businesses that are operating out of the office due to government restrictions or safety concerns to make sure the financial needs of the business are being met without exposing themselves or their families to unnecessary risks of exposure. The more businesses and individuals can accomplish online the greater the odds of slowing the spread a second time.
As we see positive cases and hospitalizations reach critical mass yet again, more people are going to turn to digital lending services. If your agency doesn’t take fast action to go digital, you could miss out on a tremendous amount of opportunity in this brave new world.
What Role Does COVID-19 Have in the Rise of Digital Lending?
For the moment, COVID-19 is certainly the driving factor behind the mad dash to digital platforms for everything from ordering groceries and take-out to conducting business and lending. The problem is, the world has changed thanks to this outbreak and people now understand that there is greater convenience and more freedom by transitioning many services to the offerings of the World Wide Web.
In other words, the odds are good that society will never fully return to the way it did business before. Now the businesses have embraced the realities of a remote workforce and enjoyed the benefits of greater productivity, more creativity, and outside the box thinking; many will continue to offer employees the ability to work from home even after all restrictions are removed.
More importantly, the general public is enjoying the freedom from the commute working from home provides and the flexibility and convenience managing financial choices, shopping, and more from the convenience of their mobile phones, home computers, laptops, or tablets.
Of course, you probably have questions before you embrace digital lending for your organization. The question, “what’s in it for you?” Has been answered with the knowledge that you can remain competitive during COVID-19 and in whatever kind of lending climate rules the day when we finally live in a post-COVID reality. Benefits include:
- 24/7 availability for loan origination and renewal applications without requiring additional staff.
- Convenient application processes for borrowers.
- Automated tools for verification and to ensure compliance.
- Broader customer acquisition.
- Improved analytics and intelligence.
- Streamlined data gathering.
- Greater risk management.
The real questions involve things like preventing fraud and the decisioning process. Fortunately, there are plenty of tools to help with that.
Tools to Improve Digital Lending Decisioning
Making the move to digital lending can be disconcerting without the proper tools in place to help you in the decisioning process. MicroBilt offers a wide range of software solutions designed to help lenders go digital while mitigating risks and making informed crediting decisions. The following are among the products we offer to assist lenders.
When you make the move to offer digital lending services, it becomes important that you protect your business and those who borrow from you. These tools work together to help you detect and avoid fraud, ensure compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and to make wiser decisions about when to extend credit based on the powerful artificial intelligence used in our predictive modeling.
How Does Digital Lending Improve Experiences All Around?
As long as the pandemic rages on around the world and until we’ve discovered some way of stopping its progress in its tracks, the need for increasing digital services remains. For lenders who have the foresight to make the move to digital lending for personal and SME lending customers, the future is bright with new opportunities at every turn. Just make sure you have the right tools at your disposal to make wise lending decisions throughout the pandemic and beyond.
At this point, we have no idea how completely COVID-19 has changed the world. It stands to reason that even once the pandemic is declared over, there will be those who are reluctant to return to the way we lived our lives and conducted business before.
Now is the time to make your move to help your organization weather this current crisis and remain poised to continue long after the pandemic ends. MicroBilt is here to help.
