Novus Strategy has launched a mortgage journey simulator designed to allow lenders to test changes to their processes before committing investment.
Pathfinder enables lenders to create a digital version of their existing mortgage journey and simulate the impact of changes on areas including completion times, fall-throughs and lending capacity.
The platform covers the journey from digital verification and KYC through to decision in principle, credit decisioning, valuation, affordability and underwriting.
It also extends beyond mortgage offer into the period between offer and completion, allowing lenders to assess where delays and other friction points are affecting transactions.
TEST BEFORE INVESTING
Novus said Pathfinder was developed to help lenders decide which technology and process changes should be prioritised as the industry responds to Smart Data, greater use of upfront property information and wider reforms to home buying and selling.
Rather than committing to a transformation programme and subsequently measuring its impact, lenders can use their own data to model potential changes beforehand.
The platform generates a heatmap identifying friction points and measures their potential impact on metrics including fall-throughs, completion times and lost lending opportunities.
It also includes lender benchmarking and a Vendor Radar designed to help lenders assess potential suppliers and procurement options.
“See the outcomes before they invest.”
Kevin Duncan (main picture, inset), Pathfinder product director at Novus Strategy, said: “Pathfinder gives lenders a pathway they can be confident of investing in, because it shows them what the outcomes are likely to be.
“It’s a marked change in how lenders approach innovation and transformation. In the past, innovation programmes relied on analysis and recommendation. With simulation, lenders can literally see the outcomes before they invest. That’s why the simulator is going to prove game changing for these lenders at a critical moment for the industry.
“Pathfinder is the catalyst that tells them what they need to do to help bring down time-to-completion, and we’ve already shown that the entire redesign process can take as little as four weeks, even for a larger lender.
“Given that the industry has more of a configuration problem than a technology problem, none of this necessarily warrants changing vendors or rebuilding solutions, and all lenders have the chance to make very quick gains.”
OFFER TO COMPLETION
Pathfinder uses a drag-and-drop interface to allow lenders to redesign different stages of their mortgage journey and model the resulting impact.
Novus said this includes the post-offer stage, where delays elsewhere in the homebuying process can prevent lenders from completing loans and deploying capital.
The consultancy will demonstrate Pathfinder at its Digital Disruption Live event in Manchester on 23 September.
