The Intermediary –- May 2026 - Flipbook - Page 98
T E C H N O L O GY
Opinion
More than a
change of venue
A
s we once again spend
time at the Building
Societies Association
(BSA) Annual
Conference, one
theme is emerging
with striking consistency. There is
certainly no shortage of intent when
it comes to technology investment
within the mutual sector.
Building societies clearly
understand the imperative to
modernise, to improve service
delivery and to compete effectively in
a market that is becoming faster and
increasingly data-driven. Yet, despite
this consensus, a gap remains between
intent and operational impact.
Mutual migration
Much of the current conversation
continues to start in the same familiar
place: infrastructure, platforms
and the complex mechanics of
system migration.
The mutual model places a
necessary emphasis on resilience,
auditability and rigorous operational
control. However, this focus becomes
actively limiting when digital
transformation is framed primarily
as a change of venue rather than a
fundamental change of behaviour.
The reality is that many building
societies continue to operate with
processes that remain, at their
core, heavily manual. Moving
those existing processes into a cloud
environment without rethinking
how they actually function does not
remove operational friction. It simply
relocates it.
Nowhere is this limitation more
visible than in the way borrower
data is handled. A single application
touches multiple teams and systems,
spanning sales, credit decisioning,
underwriting, fraud prevention and
back-office operations.
At the very centre of that convoluted
process sits the collection and
validation of physical evidence.
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The Intermediary | May 2026
Payslips, bank statements, P60s,
tax calculations and identity
documents are gathered, checked,
submied, reviewed and frequently
requested again.
Brokers are currently responsible
for assembling and packaging
this information. Lenders then
deconstruct it, extract what they need,
cross-reference it manually and oen
return to the intermediary.
Costly delays
The inevitable result is delay and
a level of operational cost that is
increasingly difficult to justify.
For many building societies, this
represents a material constraint,
particularly when balanced against
the pressing need to invest in other
areas of the business, such as branch
networks or product innovation.
The core issue is not simply one
of inefficiency. It is that the current
operating model was designed
for a fundamentally different
era of lending.
Brokers now expect faster
decisions and fewer administrative
touchpoints. Customers demand
clarity and consistency. Regulators
require demonstrable accuracy
and comprehensive audit trails.
Meeting those expectations
through manual processes alone is
becoming impossible.
The opportunity here is not to
build marginally beer portals for
uploading static documents. It is to
fundamentally change how lenders
interact with the data those documents
contain. That requires a decisive move
away from static file handling.
A genuinely modern approach
enables the automatic extraction
of key data points, the precise
identification of the applicant they
relate to and the immediate validation
of references and dates without
human intervention. But the real
transformative value sits beyond that
initial step. When extracted data is
JERRY MULLE
is UK managing director
at Ohpen
automatically cross-referenced against
other verified sources, vital paerns
begin to emerge.
Income can be analysed in its full
context, rather than just captured
as a static number. Variability in
earnings, such as overtime paerns
or shi allowances, can be assessed
for consistency over time. Tax and
National Insurance (NI) contributions
can be checked automatically against
expected statutory thresholds.
Crucially, discrepancies can be
flagged early, before they become
complex issues later.
Through direct integration with
digital data sources, lenders can
validate company information,
confirm directorships, identify
existing charges and understand
complex ownership structures
without relying solely on submied
paperwork.
Data and connection
The result is not merely a more
efficient process, but a fundamentally
different one. Instead of a disjointed
series of manual handoffs,
origination becomes a connected,
data-driven workflow.
For building societies, manual
processes place a disproportionate and
exhausting burden on operational
teams, making it far harder to deliver
the responsiveness that brokers and
members increasingly expect.
At the same time, regulatory
expectations continue to evolve
rapidly. Balancing those competing
demands using traditional processes is
no longer sustainable.
Technology, deployed correctly,
offers a clear solution. Building
societies are not short of ambition.
What is urgently needed now is a shi
in how that ambition is applied. ●
