Mortgage Soup fires the questions at Simon Slater, CEO of e4 Strategic.
Mortgage Soup (MS): What is VERSA?
Simon Slater (SS): VERSA is a digital workflow platform designed to fix the broken post-offer homebuying process. Built in the UK by e4 Strategic, with input from leading lenders and conveyancers, it gives all parties greater oversight, speeds up communication, and helps manage the process more efficiently.
VERSA is already showing how joined-up digital workflows can reduce delays, improve certainty, and give lenders a clear view of every case from offer through to registration. It’s this visibility — and the drive to improve customer service and cut transaction times — that’s finally putting the spotlight on the post-offer stage.
MS: Why is the post-offer stage such a problem?
SS: The main reason is that it hasn’t really changed in decades. Even as other parts of the mortgage process have gone digital, the post-offer process – from mortgage offer to completion – is still fragmented, manual, email driven and largely untracked.
Conveyancers and lenders are often left working in isolation; lines of communication are difficult, progress updates mainly come by email or phone, queries bounce around before resolution, and there is little sharing of key property data.
It’s no surprise that this is where things start to slip. And because it’s so hard to get clear visibility of the transaction, lenders are often the last to know when and why a case is stalling. The process is undoubtedly slower and far less efficient than it could be. This all creates more uncertainty and stress for consumers.
MS: So, what exactly is VERSA trying to fix?
SS: The aim of VERSA is to bring lenders, conveyancers and other stakeholders onto one shared platform. It covers everything from the initial panel management process, to onboarding and managing panel conveyancing firms, issuing offers, resolving lender queries, tracking the milestones of a transaction, managing all legal documentation as well as ensuring that the lender’s charge is registered on time.
It’s not about replacing people and their expertise across this process; it’s about empowering them with modern technology and joining the dots. Most of the problems in this stage of the transaction are process related.
VERSA aims to remove the outdated, manual processes and replace them with a digital, structured, consistent and transparent solution.
MS: Is this just about speed?
SS: Speed is a part of it, especially with consumer expectations in this digital age. But for lenders, it’s more about transparency and the certainty of ensuring that their requirements are met.
When lenders have better visibility across their conveyancer panel and their pipeline of cases they can plan and operate far more effectively, reduce operational inefficiencies and mitigate risks.
We feel that conveyancers will be the biggest winners from using VERSA. We know that VERSA will reduce the timings of certain key processes – like resolving queries with lenders – all of which will help improve overall efficiencies, save time and money.
MS: Where does it sit in the lender tech stack?
SS: VERSA is a stand-alone, full-service cloud platform, backed by teams of support people. All that’s required is an API integration with a lender’s mortgage servicing system and ideally going forward with CMS systems for conveyancers.
That said, VERSA is built to be flexible. Some modules, like VERSA Connect for handling queries, can be used by all parties immediately with no system integration at all. Our VERSA Assure product, for panel management, can also be deployed as a stand-alone system.
VERSA is modular, scalable and built around how lenders and conveyancers work, or should be working in the modern age.
MS: What’s the story with Post Valuation Queries (also known as PVQs)?
SS: They’re a massive pain point, for both lenders and conveyancers. Some of the UK’s largest lenders receive significant numbers of queries every month. And most of them are still handled via rounds of emails and calls, which means resolution turnaround times can be painfully slow. That’s not just frustrating, it’s time consuming and expensive from an operational perspective for everyone.
VERSA Connect replaces that process with a secure, intelligent, portal. It uses dynamic fields and guided prompts to fast-track the process, making queries easier to interpret and quicker to resolve.
It’s a simple fix for one of the most persistent workflow problems in the industry. We also have a very innovative AI-driven solution coming soon that will take VERSA Connect to the next level!
MS: What makes VERSA different to what’s already out there?
SS: VERSA brings together a panel and digital workflow management platform in a single system all centred around a case. It’s a clean-slate solution, designed to handle the reality of modern lending operations.
It has been built specifically for the UK market over the past 4 years, in consultation with leading lenders, conveyancing firms and compliance experts, but leveraging our 25 years of know-how and experience from the business in South Africa.
What sets it apart is that it doesn’t just provide a view of what’s happening. It drives the process forward from instruction to registration and gives lenders real oversight of every case and key metrics in real-time.
