The Intermediary – November 2025 - Flipbook - Page 40
T E C H N O L O GY
In focus
Real transformation dem
or all the talk of
innovation, the truth
is that the mortgage
application process
remains stubbornly
clunky. Brokers are
dealing with duplicate data entry.
Lenders are working through
inconsistent information.
We’re all working harder than ever,
but the mortgage journey remains
disjointed, and that’s because the
systems we’re working with were built
for a different era and not to effectively
meet today’s demands.We’ve improved
the sophistication of affordability tools
and sourcing platforms. But the core
journey that actually gets a customer
a mortgage remains fragmented. The
fact-find is captured once but rekeyed. Each lender still operates their
own portal with their own question
sets. Documentation still travels in
emails and uploads that multiply
across systems. Underwriters receive
several versions of the same data. It’s
confusing, insecure and inefficient.
And it’s now one of the biggest
operational problems the mortgage
industry faces.
F
No more tweaking
Operational pressure is rising across
lenders and brokers. Compliance
demands are increasing. Clients
expect clarity and speed in every
financial interaction. The old model is
way off meeting expectations.
The industry has tried numerous
solutions – portal updates, user
interface (UI) tweaks, smarter
workflows. But portals and UI tweaks
are isolated fixes. What needs to
change is the underlying architecture
– the ‘plumbing’ as I like to call it –
which is just too fragmented.
If we are to make meaningful and
impactful changes, then we must
all, as an industry, move towards a
fully connected mortgage technology
ecosystem which eliminates
fragmentation from the process.
In the mortgage industry, we
are fortunate to have incredible
technology experts developing the
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The Intermediary | November 2025
most sophisticated digital systems.
Creating a fully digital mortgage
application process for brokers and
lenders isn’t beyond our reach ... if we
work together.
What should a digital mortgage
journey look like?
Data is captured once and used
everywhere, without brokers acting
as human copy-and-paste machines.
Financial information is digitally
verified, not repeatedly uploaded in
PDFs where it’s at risk of being lost
or stolen.
Underwriting receives structured,
consistent data, enabling faster,
more accurate decisions.
All parties share a real-time view of
progress, eliminating case-chasing,
repetition and giving transparency
to borrowers.
Application times reduce because
the structural friction that comes
with re-keying, duplication, and
constant back-and-forth between
lender and broker, disappears.
The good news is that this is all
entirely possible – now. The
technology exists. At Mortgage
Brain we have been developing
these processes for the benefit of
the industry. and we’re excited
about the impact on the future of
mortgage distribution.
What’s happening?
We’re seeing signs already of how
connectivity can greatly improve the
mortgage application journey. With
developments such as:
Intelligent data capture
Instead of brokers manually reshaping
data for each lender, we have the
ability to now take one standard
data set per client and distribute it
consistently to multiple lenders,
despite each lender having a slightly
different need.
The broker journey is universal
regardless of the lender chosen for
their client.
ZAHID BILGRAMI
is CEO of Mortgage Brain
Digitally verified data sources
Digital ID verification, Open Property
Data Association (OPDA) services,
and other digital services are set to
replace traditional manual document
uploads. These solutions provide
faster, safer and more reliable ways
to verify customer information,
significantly reducing the backand-forth that oen slows down the
mortgage process.
API-driven connectivity
Application programming interfaces
(APIs) are a major part of the
evolution. APIs are quietly and
invisibly breaking down the walls
between systems. They enable data,
permissions and status updates to
move instantly. APIs don’t replace
existing systems; they connect
them, allowing evolution rather
than rebuild.
However, not all APIs are the same,
and if those integrating systems do
so without proper care, this detracts
from the seamless user experience.
True standardisation
The reality is that if every lender
continues to develop its own formats,
definitions and processes it becomes
