As banks become more tech savvy, they are increasingly looking at loan automation technology. To find out the benefits and the challenges, executive e

anks and lending institutions need to be competitive in today's lending environment in order to be in business.
While they may endeavor to stay ahead with niche products, sustained marketing, effective customer care and efficient collection system, they can no longer depend on manual processes in their lending business. Geographical reach and brand loyalty can to some extent help them, but these are no longer the determining factors. It calls for efficiency in taking decisions, in servicing, in monitoring and in collecting.
Borrowers have the ability to borrow from their choicest sources and whenever they want. The institutions are realizing that the customers demand convenience apart from acceptable levels of interest. If a manager is not capable of processing a loan application within the least possible time, the customer has the choice to look toward others who can very well do so.
So, Indian banks and financial institutions are today following the footsteps of their global counterparts in automating their lending processes often using fully integrated solutions that cover the entire Joan life cycle - from loan origination through loan application process, risk assessment, decision-making, monitoring and management control of approved loans. And what's more, there are packages available in the markets which are customizable, scalable and implementable with the least interference to the existing automated environment.
Predominantly, these packages have: (i) risk management tools that help underwriters to automatically evaluate loan packages and give alerts on doubtful applications and evaluate the applicants in terms of liqUidity, collateral and credit history; (ii) document scanning facility that enables digital storage and transmission of documents and that ensures integrity of the document throughout the loan life cycle; (iii) communication facility for managers processing the loan applications by exchange of notes through the system and even through dedicated email systems; (iv) workflow automation which facilitates flow of loan applications through various stages seamlessly and within timeframes; (v) monitoring system that takes care of repayment schedules and managing PAs; and (vi) EMI reminders and default notices that are generated to customers from the system without the managers haVing to
IN-HOUSE DEVELOPMENT
Housing Development and

Finance Corporation (HDFC), the prime lender in the country to home seekers, has a loan automation system in place and all the lending activities of the company
are carried out through this system. "Our loan automation system is
an end-to-end solution, starting

with lead management to lead maturation, underwriting, disbursement, loan servicing

and closure of the loan. It covers

the entire loan life cycle - an

average loan life of 10 years to
a maximum of 30 years," says R. Arivazhagan, senior general manager, Information Technology, at HDFC.

"It is a fully integrated system, and what is significant is that it is

a home grown system and not a package we bought from vendors. We began work on it in 1990s as we found the need to automate loan processing in order to keep pace with the other automation processes that were happening

in the organization. We consciously opted out of going
for a package as such packages
would require extensive customization in order to meet
local requirements - basically legal.

We worked on a next generation system and it evolved over a period of time as we went on adding modules and functionalities as we grew. For example, in older days, there used to
be just one type of loans, that is, fixed rate loan. ow we have several, like variable rates, flexible rates, monthly rests, quarterly rests, etc. Similarly, earlier, there was no provision

for generating credit reports to credit information agencies. These agencies have started functioning we need to offer reports