Finsure launches AI to boost loan processing

The AI technology is designed to significantly improve the quality of loan applications.

Finsure chief executive Simon Bednar said SureScore had the potential to be an “industry trailblazer” in client servicing by helping brokers to have their loans approved more efficiently through a more streamlined submission process.

“This ground-breaking technology to assist brokers with loan applications will enable our broker network to find more business and also help them to convert more business,” Mr Bednar said.

“Using artificial intelligence (AI), SureScore presents corrective recommendations prior to submission so the broker can review, add the missing data and increase the likelihood of lender approval.

“[It] also provides recommendations to the broker on where they can increase the likelihood of approval. It doesn’t rely on lender credit engines or integration and is built using data insights.”

He said this means the broker can have “the highest chance” of their application being approved, enhancing the customer outcome.

It comes after Finsure identified a need in the industry to educate and improve the quality of broker loan application submissions, the aggregator said.

Mr Bednar explained aggregators are held accountable for their network’s efficiency and quality by the banks and funders and so the idea was born to use AI and data to help brokers understand the likelihood of an application being approved before it was submitted.

The SureScore model was “successfully trialled” last year using a 90-day period of Finsure lodgement data, and it predicted each conditional approval with almost 90 per cent accuracy.

He explained SureScore analysed around $20 billion worth of mortgage submissions across every Finsure broker including analysing each lender’s back-channel message across every submission over a 90-day period.

“SureScore links the findings to 80 data points for that related application and then provides a numerical rating on how likely that application is to be approved – prior to the broker submitting it,” Mr Bednar said.

Mr Bednar said Finsure believed SureScore was a “much more powerful approach” as it provided the broker with insights on how their data and how their application could be improved rather than a binary credit decision from a lender.

“Ideally through brokers submitting more efficient and accurate applications, lenders can provide quicker turnaround times and reduce their cost of acquisition, which will have a positive knock-on effect back to the broker network and ecosystem,” Mr Bednar said.

Automation is changing

While some reports have suggested that technology and automation will make finance brokers and accountants redundant, futurist Mark Pesce has said these roles will change, not disappear.

Mr Pesce said that rather than being disrupted and replaced, he believed these professions would instead evolve to harness and embrace technology.

He outlined that technology can deliver “manifold benefits” when it comes to time savings and efficiencies, but that these largely exclude personalised analysis, strategy and education.

[Related: Automation is changing, not replacing, the role of finance brokers]