World Paper free Day (6th November) encourages businesses to reduce the amount of paper they generate. It’s difficult to imagine that in this day and age businesses still rely on hard copy. Yet that is still the case in many banking and financial institutions when it comes to processing credit and loan applications. Unfortunately, a reliance on paper creates silos in the workstream and is an obstacle to fast and efficient information sharing.

Digitising end-to-end processes can help streamline activities, deliver a better customer experience and a more efficient outcome for the lender. Through more automation, less duplication of effort and less reliance on paper, lending institutions can speed up information processing, limit opportunities for manual errors, save costs and pave the way for continuing innovation. Holding and managing the processing of information digitally also gives lenders a more reliable, searchable record of activities, which is ever-important in a regulated environment.

In a competitive market, lenders are looking to gain an edge with appealing products and services and excellent customer service. They are looking to consolidate and improve the accessibility of information across business functions to aid end-to-end straight through processing, reduce multiple information requests for the same data and data re-keying during the same application. Back-office processes need to stand up to customer expectations set by their experience of the front-end channel, which is increasingly online and designed to be quick and simple. Slick end-to-end assessments need higher levels of automation through the risk decisioning process, and the superceding of manual processes with digital.

A reliance on paper-based processes is a major drain on the limited time and budget resources of all businesses, lenders included. Through digitisation these businesses can aim to reduce costs, improve customer handling and make processes more efficient this World Paper free day.